PURTSCHELLER (Ludwig). Über Fels und Firn: Bergwanderungen. Munich, F. Bruckmann, 1901. In-4°, publisher's cloth binding, edges browned. First edition (posthumous collection published by Heinrich Hess). Illustrated with 25 plates and 75 vignettes in the text (photographs by Vittorio Sella and drawings by Edward Theodor Compton). Accounts of Purtscheller's ascents. Handwritten bookplate on title page. Ludwig Purtscheller (1849-1900) was one of the greatest mountaineers of his time. An Austrian national and gymnastics teacher, he was an enthusiast of unguided climbing, which he practised early in his career with the Zsigmondy brothers. After the tragic death of Emil Zsigmondy in 1885 on the south face of the Meije, Purtscheller continued to climb. In particular, he was a specialist in the Eastern Alps: his most outstanding feat was undoubtedly the climb of the East Face of the Watzmann, some 2,000 m high. Purtscheller also took part in expeditions to the Caucasus and Africa, where he and Hans Meyer made the first ascent of Kilimanjaro in 1889. In 1900, he fell in a storm at Le Dru and was taken back to the valley, where he died a few weeks later as a result of the accident. He gave his name to a needle in the Mont Blanc Massif, near the Aiguille du Tour. Attached: - BLODIG (Karl): Die Viertausender der Alpen. Munich, Rother, 1923. In-8°, publisher's half cloth binding. First edition, illustrated with a colour frontispiece after Edward Theodor Compton and 49 illustrations on 37 plates, some by Edward Theodor Compton. An account of ascents of peaks over 4,000 metres in the Alps. Karl Blodig (1859-1956) was a "collector" of 4,000m peaks, all of which he climbed in the Alps. In 1932, at the age of 73, he achieved the feat of solo climbing the northern couloir from the Col Armand Charlet to the Aiguille Verte, adding the Aiguille du Jardin and the Grande Rocheuse to his list of achievements, and returning down the same route!