Jules Jacot-Guillarmod

Who is Jules Jacot-Guillarmod?

Jules Jacot-Guillarmod was a Swiss doctor, mountaineer and photographer. He is born in La Chaux-de-Fonds. He participated to the 1902 expedition to the K2 and the 1905 expedition to the Kanchenjunga. He related these expeditions in his book called "Six Mois dans l'Himalaya, le Karakorum et l'Hindu-Kush". He died in 1925 in the Gulf of Aden.

The K2 Expedition, which was led by Oscar Eckenstein and included besides Jacot-Guillarmod three English, two Austrians and one Swiss, was the first time Europeans had ventured so close to the treacherous mountain. The expedition reached the base of K2 in June 1902. The beauty, dangers, people, culture and lifestyles of the region were documented by Jacot-Guillarmod in many photographs.

Jacot-Guillarmod's photographs of the K2 expedition are not merely images of the mountain world but, owing the over 100 years that have since passed, cultural records of a region that has changed drastically. His photos, however, are popular for the landscape they show. It was Jacot-Guillarmod's photos that gave the world some of its first glimpses of K2. Jacot-Guillarmod also wrote about his experiences in his journal. It is a detailed account of the daily life of the members of the expedition. His journal entries also contain rich descriptions of the upper Indus region and its inhabitants.