Wikipedia
Although the term "alpinism" has become synonymous with sporting achievement, pyreneism, appearing in the 19th century, distanced itself from it by considering the physical experience of the mountains as inseparable from the aesthetic and cultural emotion.
We cannot mention the word "pyreneism" without speaking about its inventor, the historian and geographer Henri Beraldi. Indeed, as the origin of the word alpinism goes back to 1876 (the French alpine club was created in Paris in 1874), we find the term pyreneism for the first time in the foreword of his Excursion biblio-pyrénéenne ("Biblio-pyrenean excursion") that introduces volume 1 of 100 years in the Pyrenees in 1898:
Contrary to what one may think, when the word "pyreneism" was launched by Henri Beraldi in his 7-volume authoritative book, it was not meant to stand opposite to the word "alpinism".