Article: Mountain high: the Swiss Alps have traditionally been the domain of winters sports enthusiasts. But, as editor Carolyn Fry discovers, adventurous visitors are also finding thrills among the peaks during the summer. (Geo Travel).

NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH adventurers were the first to test their mountaineering prowess on the unclimbed peaks of the Alps. In hob-nailed boots and tweeds, they hiked, hauled and scrambled their way to the summits of the Jungfrau, Eiger and Matterhorn, pausing at the top to sip champagne and plant the Union Jack in the pristine snow. They were followed by such entrepreneurs as Thomas Cook and Henry Lunn, who brought tourists to take part in the fledgling sports of skiing and tobogganning, and in the process gave life to Switzerland's winter-tourism industry.

In the subsequent years the Swiss have taken the idea to the extreme. Paragliding, white-water rafting, ...

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