Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc (
French for
white mountain) or
Monte Bianco (
Italian, same meaning) also known as "La Dame Blanche" (
French,
the white lady), in the
Alps, is the highest
mountain in
Western Europe. Its height is about
4,808 m (15,774
feet), but varies from year to year by a few metres, depending on snowfall and climate conditions. The latest measure of its height (in December 2005) showed that the summit was 4 808.75
m high. At this altitude, there is only 56% as much oxygen available as there is at sea level.
[Altitude pressure and hypoxia calculators] More about the height of Mont Blanc is given
below.
Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in
Europe, assuming the
Caucasus Mountains are excluded; it has been argued that, geographically and culturally, the Caucasus are at least as much Asian as European.
The mountain lies between the regions of
Haute-Savoie,
France and
Aosta Valley,
Italy. The location of the
summit itself is a subject of controversy between the two countries, and each tends to place it within its own boundaries on
maps. In a convention between France and
Kingdom of Sardinia, in
Turin (1861), the border [
1] was fixed on the highest point of Mont Blanc and this was the last official definition of this border, but often the French maps do not agree about this solution.
The two most famous towns near Mont Blanc are
Chamonix, in Haute-Savoie, France (site of the first
Winter Olympic Games in
1924) and
Courmayeur, in the Aosta Valley in Italy.
Begun in 1957 and completed in 1965, the 11.6
km (7.25
mile)
Mont Blanc Tunnel runs beneath the mountain between these two cities and is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes.
The Mont Blanc
massif is very popular for
mountaineering,
hiking, and
skiing.
The first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc was on August 8 1786 by
Jacques Balmat and the doctor
Michel Paccard. This climb, initiated by
Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, who gave a reward for the successful ascent, traditionally marks the start of modern mountaineering. The first woman to reach the summit was
Marie Paradis in 1808.
United States president to-be
Theodore Roosevelt also led an expedition, reaching the summit while on his honeymoon in 1886.
Now the summit is ascended by an average 20,000 mountaineer-tourists each year and could be considered an easy, yet long, ascent for someone who is well trained and used to the
altitude. This impression is reinforced by the fact that from l'
Aiguille du Midi (where the cable car stops) Mont Blanc seems quite close, being merely 1000 m higher.
However every year the Mont Blanc
massif takes many victims, and in peak weekends (normally around August) the local
rescue service flies an average of 12 missions, mostly directed towards people in trouble on one of the normal routes of the mountain. These are courses that require knowledge of high-altitude mountaineering, a guide (or at least a veteran mountaineer), and proper equipment. It is a long course that includes delicate passages and the hazard of rock slides. Also, at least one night at the refuge is required to get used to the altitude; less could lead to
altitude sickness and possible death.
There are a few 'classic' itineraries to climb Mont Blanc, which are outlined below. However, please do not climb Mont Blanc solely with the advice found here, please do some further research, especially with maps, and go with an experienced mountaineer.
*
The Voie des Critalliers also known as
Voie Royale. Starting from
Saint-Gervais take the TMB (
Tramway du Mont-Blanc) to get to the
Nid d'Aigle. The ascent then begins in the direction of the
Tête Rouge cabin, and then through the
Goûter Corridor, which is very dangerous because of the frequent rock-falls, to stay in the
Goûter cabin for the night. The next day pass by the Dôme du Goûter, the
Vallot cabin and
L'arrête des Bosses. This is without a shadow of a doubt the most frequented itinerary.
*
La Voie des 3 Monts, also known as
La Traversée. Starting from
Chamonix, take the Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi, and then go down towards the
Col du Midi. From there, go to the
Cosmiques cabin and stay the night there. The next day the ascent continues through Mont Blanc du Tacul and Mont Maudit.
* The
historic itinerary throught the Grand Mulets, that is most frequently used in winter by skiing, or in summer to go down to Chamonix.
* The
normal Italian itinerary, also known as
La route des Aiguilles Grises. After crossing the Miage glacier, spend the night in the
Gonella cabin. The next day go through the Col des Aiguilles Grises and then the Dôme du Goûter, and you will end up at L'arrête des Bosses.
*
The Miage - Bionnassay - Mont Blanc crossing, whichis usually done in three days. Start from Contamines-Montjoie, and spend the night in the
Conscrits cabin. The following day, cross the Dômes de Miages and sleep in the
Durier cabin. The third day, go through l'Aiguille de Bionnassay, and then the Dôme du Goûter.
The summit of Mont Blanc is a thick, perennial ice and snow dome whose thickness varies, so no exact and permanent summit altitude can be determined. But accurate measurements have been made.
For a long time its official altitude was 4,807
m. Then in 2002, the
IGN and expert surveyors, with the aid of
GPS, measured it to be 4,810.40
m.
After the
2003 heatwave in Europe, a team of scientists re-measured the height on the 6
th and 7
th of September. The team was made up of the glaciologist
Luc Moreau, two surveyors from the GPS Company, three people from the
IGN, seven expert surveyors, four mountain guides from
Chamonix and
Saint-Gervais and four students from various institutes in France. This team noted that the altitude was 4,808.45 m, and the peak was 75
cm away from where it had been in 2002.
After these results were published, more than 500 points were measured, to assess the effects of climate change, and the fluctuations in the height of the mountain at different points. From then on the altitude of the mountain has been measured every two years.
The interpretation that the heatwave had caused this fluctuation is disputed, because the heatwave is known not to have significantly affected the glaciers above 4000 m. The height and position of the summit could have been moved by general glacial forces. At this
altitude, the temperatures rarely rise above 0
°C. During the summer of 2003, the temperature did rise to 2°C, and even 3°C, but this would not have been enough for the ice, which stayed at -15°C, to melt.
The summit was measured again in 2005, and the results of were published on 16 December 2005. The height was found to be 4,808.75 m, 30 cm more than the previous recorded height.
The summit snow and ice is between 15 and 23 m deep. The actual rock summit is at 4,792 m, and is 40 m away from the ice-covered summit.
From the summit of Mont Blanc on a clear day, the
Jura, the
Vosges, the
Black Forest and the
Massif Central mountain ranges can be seen.
Who owns the summit of Mont Blanc?
Since the
French Revolution this question has spurred many debates. Before this date the whole mountain was in the
Kingdom_of_Sardinia.
The first treaty to define a border in the region is dated 15 May 1796. In this treaty the Sardinian king was forced by
Napoleon to cede
Savoie and
Nice's territories to the
French Republic, and in article 4 of this treaty it says: "The border between the Sardinian kingdom and the departements of the French Republic will be established on a line determined by the most advanced points on the
Piedmont side, of the summits, peaks of mountains and other locations subsequently mentioned, as well as the intermediary peaks, knowing: starting from the point where the borders of
Faucigny, the
Duchy of Aoust and the
Valais, to the extremity of the glaciers or the
Monts-Maudits: first the peaks or plateaus of the Alps, to the rising edge of the
Col-Mayor". This act is even more confusing, because it states that the border should be visible from the town of
Chamonix and
Courmayeur. The summit is not visible from Courmayeur, because part of the mountain lower down obscures it. Already inaccurate at the time, this treaty is no longer valid, because it was replaced by a later legal act.
This act was signed in
Turin on 24 March, 1860 by
Napoleon III and
Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, and deals with the annexation of
Savoie. A demarcation agreement, signed on 7 March, 1861, defines the "new border".
One of the prints from the
Sarde Atlas,[
2] made in 1823 and positions the border exactly on the summital edge of the mountain (and measures it to be 4,804 m high.
The convention of 7 March 1861 recognizes this, through an attached map, but takes into consideration the limits of the massif, and draws the border on the icecap of the Mont Blanc, and therefore makes it both French and Italian. Watershed analysis of modern topographic mapping not only places the main summit on the border, but also suggests that the border should follow a line northwards from the main summit towards Mont Maudit, leaving the south east ridge to Mont Blanc de Courmayeur wholly within Italy.
Despite the fact that the Franco-Italian border was redefined in both 1947 and 1963, the commission, made up of both Italians and French, tactfully ignored the Mont Blanc issue.
The first ascent
The first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc was on August 8 1786 by
Jacques Balmat and the doctor
Michel Paccard. This climb, initiated by
Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, who gave a reward for the succesful ascent, traditionally marks the start of modern mountaineering, as we know it today.
The first woman to reach the summit was
Marie Paradis on 14 July 1808. The second feminine ascent was done by
Henriette d'Angeville on 4 September 1838. The first winter ascent was done by
Isabella Stratton in January 1876.
Marguette Bouvier was the first person to ski down the mountain, in 1929.
The Vallot cabin
The first real scientific investigations on the summit were conducted by the botanist at metereologist
Joseph Vallot at the end of the
19th century. He wanted to stay near the top of the summit, so he had to build his own permanent cabin.
The Janssen Observatory
In 1891,
Pierre Janssen, a scientific academic, envisaged the construction of an
observatory at the summit of Mont Blanc.
Gustave Eiffel agreed to take on the project, provided he could find strong foundations. The
Swiss surveyor Imfeld dug down 15 m but found nothing solid, so Eiffel gave up.
Despite this, the observatory was built in 1893. Levers attached to the ice supported the observatory. This worked to some extent until 1906, when the building started leaning heavily. The movement of the levers corrected the lean slightly, but three years later (two years after
Jannsen's death) a crevasse started opening under the observatory and it was abandoned. Eventually the building fell, and only the tower could be saved
in extremis.
* In 1960, the airplane pilot
Henri Giraud landed on the summit, which is only 30 m long.
* In 1990, the
Swiss Pierre-André Gobet, leaving from
Chamonix, completed the ascent and descent in 5 hours, 10 minutes and 14 seconds.
* On 30 May 2003,
Stéphane Brosse and
Pierre Gignoux try to beat the record by ski-walking. They went up in 4 hours and 7 minutes, and came back down in 1 hour and 8 minutes. In total they did the ascent and descent in 5 hours and 15 minutes.
* On 13 August 2003 seven
French hang-gliders landed on the summit. They reached a peak altitude of 5,200 m, thanks to the hot weather conditions, which provided strong hot air currents. Five had left from
Planpraz, one from
Rochebrune at
Megève and the last from
Samoëns.
Cinema and television
*
La Terre, son visage, is a documentary by
Jean-Luc Prévost and published by Édition Société national de télévision française, released in
1984. It is part of the
Haroun Tazieff raconte sa terre, vol. 1 series. In it he talks about the west-east crossing of Mont Blanc.
* The film ‘'Malabar Princess
.
* The television-film Premier de cordée''.
In literature
*
Premier de cordée.
*
Hugo et le Mont Blanc (by
Colette Cosnie â€"
Édition Guérin).
The Mont Blanc
massif is being put forward as a potential
World Heritage Site because of its uniqueness and its cultural importance, considered the birthplace and symbol of modern
mountaineering. However not everyone shares this goal and it would require the three governments of
Italy,
France and
Switzerland to make a request to
UNESCO for it to be listed.
Mont Blanc is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world, and for this reason, it is threatened. Pro-Mont Blanc (an international collective of associations for the protection of Mont Blanc) published in 2002 the book
Le versant noir du mont Blanc (The black hillside of Mont Blanc), which exposes current and future problems in conserving the site.
*
Mont Blanc Tunnel*
Mont Blanc Tramway*
Haute Route*
Reasoning about the border between France and Italy by Umberto Pellazza (PDF, Italian)
*
Official paper of the French surveying board (
PDF)
*
Mont Blanc on Peakware*
Mont Blanc on Summitpost*
Mont-blanc on dieAlpen.at - online encyclopedia of the Alps
*
Mont Blanc Massif Several photos of the Mont Blanc massif including GPS coordinates of the photo locations
*
Mont Blanc from Space*
Visiting Mont Blanc - in English
*
Photos of Mont Blanc - Terra Galleria Taken by an alpinist on each of the five faces of the mountain
*
Pictures of Mont Blanc mountain range area*
Descent Into the Ice - Companion web site to the PBS NOVA program which follows a glaciologist and an adventurer into the glacier caves of France's Mt. Blanc
*
Mont Blanc from Pointe de Drône*
proMONT-BLANC English Site*
Why you might not want to climb Mont Blanc - the "mountaineering" page on this site has an informative PDF document from the local guide bureau.
*
Funivie Monte Bianco *
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Map 
