Amé Gorret
| Amé Gorret | |
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| Native name | l'abbé Gorret (Father Gorret) |
| Born | October 25, 1836 Valtournenche, Aosta Valley |
| Died | November 4, 1907 Saint-Pierre, Aosta Valley, Italy |
| Occupation | Priest and mountaineer |
Amé Gorret (1836-1907), known in his native Aosta Valley as the "Abbé Gorret" ("Father Gorret"), was a priest and Alpinist (mountaineer).
He was a member of the group which in 1865 undertook the second successful ascent of the Matterhorn, which was the first such ascent from the Italian side.
Throughout his life he enjoyed a reputation for being unconventional, and was therefore frequently assigned to remote mountain parishes.
Amé Gorret was born on 25 October 1836 at Valtournenche in the Aosta Valley which at that time was in the Kingdom of Sardinia. Amé was the son of Jean-Antoine Gorret, a mountain guide, and of Marie-Véronique Carrel.
He attended school in his home village, and it was also in Valtournenche that he studied for the priesthood with the local priest, and subsequently with the vicar, who suggested he went study at the main seminary in Aosta, where he was ordained on 25 May 1861.
He moved in August 1861 to Champorcher, his first parish. It was at this time that he met Victor Emmanuel the new king of a new country. The two quickly formed a friendship based on a shared love of the mountains and a shared suspicion of the formalities characteristic of political life at the time.
Father Gorret found himself transferred frequently from one parish to another: in 1864 he was moved to Saint-Pierre, and a year later he was moved again, to Cogne.
On 17 July 1865, with Jean-Antoine Carrel, Jean-Baptiste Bich and Jean-Augustin Meynet, Gorret undertook the second successful ascent of the Matterhorn. This was the first such ascent from the Italian side, and was achieved just three days after another expedition, headed up by Edward Whymper, completed the first recorded ascent of the mountain, by way of the Hörnli ridge on its eastern side. Following the Carrel group's successful ascent it was Gorret who created a wider awareness of the exploit by submitting a report to the local newspaper, the Feuille d’Aoste. After this he became better known both as a mountaineer and as a writer.
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