For over 200 years, the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix has adapted to the challenges of each time. It has played an active part in the writing of mountain history, demonstrating its engagement and imagination.
Today, the Compagnie des Guides is facing climate change, the greatest challenge in its history. More than ever, we are trying to adapt and imagine a new practice to keep offering exceptional adventures in a “World over the top”.

Increasingly more technical and complicated, the great climbs of this era were most often done by guides without their clients. Far-away expeditions were becoming more and more frequent. In 1950, Louis Lachenal, achieved with Maurice Herzog, the first ascent of Annapurna, which allowed France to win the race to be the first to reach 8000m. Gaston Rébuffat, Lionel Terray, Gerard Devouassoux, Georges Payot and René Desmaison to name a few were also particularly active in the Alps as well as abroad.

Once the main peaks have been climbed by their normal routes, mountaineers are turning to more technical routes. Little by little, the popularity of the high mountain increases and the first ascents without guides make their appearance. The guiding profession also begins to attract people that are not native to mountain valleys.

This period is marked by an influx of rich Anglo-Saxons wanting to discover the high mountains in the valley. The majority of the alpine arc remains to be discovered and the hunt to be the first is in full swing. The 1855-1865 decade is considered "the golden age of mountaineering" because it is unquestionably the most prolific in the history of mountaineering.

We often consider that it all began in 1741 when two British explorers developed their fascination with the glaciers in the region, particularly the Mer de Glace. The amount of visitors rapidly increased changing the habitants of the “hamlet” of Chamonix, already hunters and crystal seekers, naturally into local guides.