Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc (French for white mountain) or Monte Bianco (Italian, same meaning), also known as "La Dame Blanche" (French, the white lady) is a mountain in the Alps. With its 4,810 m summit, it is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe.

The mountain lies between the regions of Aosta Valley, Italy, and Haute-Savoie, France. The location of the summit itself is a subject of controversy between the two countries, as 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 was fixed on the highest point of Mont Blanc.

The two most famous towns near Mont Blanc are Courmayeur, in Aosta Valley, Italy, and Chamonix, in Haute-Savoie, France - the site of the first Winter Olympics. From Chamonix a cable car ascends the mountain side.

History
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.

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 (the summit is almost 5 km above sea level); less could lead to altitude sickness and possible death.

Altitude
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 technology, measured it to be 4,810.40 m.

After the 2003 heatwave in Europe, a team of scientists re-measured the height on 6 and 7 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 rose 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 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 actual rock summit is at 4,792 m, and is 40 m away from the ice-covered summit.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org

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