Josef Imboden

A cabinet card portrait of the Alpine guide and mountaineer Joseph Imboden (1840-1925).

Although known primarily as an Alpine guide, Imboden’s mountaineering activities extended far further afield. In 1883 he visited the Himalayas with the British mountaineer William Woodman Graham but contracted a fever in Darjeeling and had to be replaced. He must have recovered fully for the following year he was one of the two guides who accompanied Barnes and Chessyre-Walker on the first ascent of the western summit of the Bishorn.

Photographed by Fabronius of Brussels.