As history was made, technique improved, and knowledge and confidence increased. A great tradition of guides was built up. Men began to climb from a physical and aesthetic delight in mountains and mountaineering, and they found companionship and humour in growing social contacts. The conquest motive was soon swallowed up by a higher rival stimulus of adventurous hedonism; peak-bagging became less and less desirable, and mountaineering came to be regarded as an end in itself. The mopping up of the lesser peaks often yielded far more exacting and satisfying experiences than the earlier conquest of the giants, and this combined with a predilection for guideless climbing, gave impetus to the new approach. New ridges and new faces yielded routes of greater character and variety, and the standard of climbing was pushed up nearer and nearer to the limits of the possible. Great feats were coupled with great names : Whymper, Dent, Mummery, Zgismondy, Purtscheller, Javelle, Ryan, Young, Lepiney—to mention only a few. Alexander Burgener, Franz Lochmatter, Joseph Knubel, Joseph Georges, and a host of other famous guides were even more responsible for the advance in technique and performance
