[ The mountain Guide in Ayas ]
The mountain Guide in AyasThe mountain guide’s trade in Ayas started only at the beginning of the XIXth century; at his time in the neighbouring valleys the Mountain guides were already a large number, thanks to Queen Margherita’s stays (in the Gressoney valley) and to the conquest of Matterhorn (in Valtournenche and in Zermatt valleys).
This new trade soon becomes an important economic profit for the community, improving the low-income since yet based on breeding and agriculture. The first licensed mountain guide in Ayas was Giuseppe Favre, called “Morich”, from Antagnod; he was born in 1874, he first became bearer in 1899 and finally Guide in 1902; he has been a true “Lord of the Mountains” and he considered alpinism as a nobility. He climbed Lyskamm 56 times and he died when he was 82 years old.
The “first-generation’s” mountain guides included also Fosson Benjamin and Fosson Antoine “Fiere”, Obert Battista “Tatcha, Frachey Jean Baptiste “Bernosin”, Favre Joseph “Envers”, Favre Louis “L’on pipe” and Brunod Alexis “Friche“ called “the fox of Ayas”.Before the First World War many nobles and important and well-known people of Italy became clients of the Ayas mountain guide; moreover, very often the Guide were ingaged for the whole season just by one alpinist.
