Accompanied by the guides J.J. Bennen, of Laax, and Ulrich Wenger, of Grindelwald, John Tyndall started the ascent from Randa at 1.00 p.m. on 18 August 1861.
They had a bivouac and resumed the climb at 3.35 a.m. on the next day.
Tyndall was optimistic but the ascent became difficult, he wrote:
"Sometimes it was a fair pull upwards, sometimes an oblique twist round the corner of a rock tower; sometimes it was the grip of the finger ends in a fissure and lateral shifting of the whole body in a line parallel to the crack.
Many times I found myself with my feet highest and my head lowest."

They reached a dangerous thin ridge of snow, little wider than a hand's breadth, with precipices on either side.
The guide Bennen trod the snow down and saw that it was firm enough to cross.
Tyndall and Wenger followed Bennen, but yet the summit seemed less attainable and they were all tired.
However Tyndall steeled himself with patriotic thoughts:
"I thought of Englishmen in battle, of the qualities which had made them famous: it was mainly the quality of not knowing when to yield - of fighting for duty even after they had ceased to be animated by hope.
Such thoughts helped to lift me over the rocks."

After four hours of struggle they reached a sharp ridge of snow and finally arrived to the summit.
The return was found to be not much less difficult than the ascent; and they regained Randa at 11 p.m., after about 20 hours of almost constant hard work.
Accompanied by the guides J.J. Bennen, of Laax, and Ulrich Wenger, of Grindelwald, John Tyndall started the ascent from Randa at 1.00 p.m. on 18 August 1861. They had a bivouac and resumed the climb at 3.35 a.m. on the next day. Tyndall was optimistic but the ascent became difficult, he wrote:
"Sometimes it was a fair pull upwards, sometimes an oblique twist round the corner of a rock tower; sometimes it was the grip of the finger ends in a fissure and lateral shifting of the whole body in a line parallel to the crack. Many times I found myself with my feet highest and my head lowest."
They reached a dangerous thin ridge of snow, little wider than a hand's breadth, with precipices on either side. The guide Bennen trod the snow down and saw that it was firm enough to cross. Tyndall and Wenger followed Bennen, but yet the summit seemed less attainable and they were all tired. However Tyndall steeled himself with patriotic thoughts:
"I thought of Englishmen in battle, of the qualities which had made them famous: it was mainly the quality of not knowing when to yield - of fighting for duty even after they had ceased to be animated by hope. Such thoughts helped to lift me over the rocks."
After four hours of struggle they reached a sharp ridge of snow and finally arrived to the summit. The return was found to be not much less difficult than the ascent; and they regained Randa at 11 p.m., after about 20 hours of almost constant hard work.
Weisshorn