BLANC, MONT

This article appears in Volume V04, Page 40 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BER-BLA

BLANC, MONT , the culminating point (15,782 ft.) of the

mountain

MOUNTAIN (0. Fr. montaigne; popular Lat. montanea, an adjectival form from the classical mons, montis, whence Eng. " mount," a form usually used along with the name of an individual mountain, e.g. Mt Everest)
MOUNTAIN, THE (La Montagne)

range of the same name, which forms part of the Pennine Alps, and is divided unequally between France, Italy and Switzerland. The actual highest summit is wholly French and is the loftiest

peak

PEAK, THE

in the Alps, and in Europe also, if certain peaks in the Caucasus be excluded. At Geneva the

mountain

was in former days named the Montagne Maudite, but the present name seems to have been always used locally. On the north is the valley of Chamonix, and on the

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

the head of the valley of Aosta. Among the

great

GREAT

glaciers which stream from the '

peak

PEAK, THE

the most noteworthy are those of Bossons and Taconnaz (northern slope) and of Brenva and Miage (southern slope). The first ascent was made in 1786 by two Chamonix men, Jacques Balmat and Dr Michel Paccard, and the second in 1787 by Balmat with two local men. Later in 1787 H. B. de

Saussure

made the third ascent, memorable in many respects, and was followed a

week

WEEK (from A.S. wicu, Germanic *wikon, probably=
change
- CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)
, turn)

later by Colonel Beaufoy, the first Englishman to gain the' top. These ascents were all made from Chamonix, which is still the usual starting point, though routes have been forced up the peak from nearly every side, those on the Italian side being much steeper than that from Chamonix. The ascent from Chamonix is now frequently made in summer (rarely in winter also), but, owing to the

great

GREAT

height of the mountain, the view is unsatisfactory, though very extensive (Lyons is visible). There is an inn at the Grands Mulcts (9909 ft.). In 1890 M. Vallot built an

observatory

OBSERVATORY

and shelter hut (14,312 ft.) on the Bosses du Dromadaire (north-west

ridge

of the mountain), and in 1893 T. J. C. Janssen constructed an

observatory

OBSERVATORY

just below the very summit.
See C. Durier, Le Mont Blanc (4th ed., Paris, 1897) ; C. E. Mathews, The Annals of Mont Blanc (London. 1898) ; P. Gussfeldt, Der
Montblanc (Berlin, 1894, also a French

translation

TRANSLATION

, Geneva, 1899); L. Kurz, Climbers' Guide to the Chain of Mont Blanc, section vi. (London, 1892) ; L. Kurz and X. Imfeld, Carte de la chaine du Mont Blanc (1896, new edition 1905). (W. A. B. C.)

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