Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans cemetery

The cemetery is a magnificent memorial to the history of mountaineering in Oisans. It is home to the tombs of mountaineers who set out to conquer the summits, as well as valley guides and their patient wives.
The oldest tombs, two obelisks side by side, are those of Emile Zsigmondy, an eminent Austrian mountaineer, and Ernest Torrent, who both lost their lives on the Meije in 1885 and 1896. The tomb of Pierre Gaspard, a local boy who was the first to climb the Meije, with Emmanuel Boileau de Castelnau, on 16 August 1877, takes the form of a double rock topped with an ice axe. The many foreign names on the stelae show that these mountaineers often came from far away to conquer the summits. In addition to these tombs, there are numerous commemorative plaques set in stone at the entrance of the cemetery.