The ascent of the Wetterhorn above Grindelwald in the Bernes Alps by Wills and his party in 1854, which Wills mistakenly believed was the first (actually summited a decade earlier by local guides Melchior Bannholzer and Hans Jaun on 31 August 1844) is considered the beginning of the so-called golden age of alpinism. His account of the expedition helped make climbing mountains as sport fashionable.