France Gives a Hero His Due for 1st Conquest of Europe’s Highest Peak

Two hundred years ago, on a glaring, sunny day, a doctor and a peasant reached the top of Mont Blanc in the first conquest of the highest summit of Europe and ushered in the modern age of mountain climbing.

France celebrated the 200th anniversary Friday--another glaring, sunny day--by re-enacting the drama, telecasting news programs from the slopes, dedicating a monument, issuing a stamp, and lighting up the mountain.

Two mountain guides dressed in 18th-Century-style clothing and following roughly the same route taken by Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard and his companion, reached the top of Mont Blanc on Friday, three hours ahead of schedule. Their ascent was filmed by a hovering helicopter.

“It is beautiful and warm up here, we knew we could make it all along,” said guide Jacques Cuenot after he and Jacques Mottin reached the summit after a two-day climb.

Their success did not end the celebrations of the original ascent.

They will continue until Sept. 7 with the arrival of a one time avid mountaineer--Pope John Paul II, who plans to bless both climbers and the mountain that day.

For France, the anniversary has served as a chance to redress an antique wrong. Dr. Paccard, the first man to set foot on the summit of the 15,770-foot mountain that is known as “the roof of Europe,” received little recognition for his feat and, in fact, was widely described in the 19th Century as a laggard who had to be pulled up to the top by his partner.

Modern historians have demolished this account as a lie, and a statue of Paccard was finally dedicated Friday in the town of Chamonix in the valley beneath Mont Blanc.

The Mountain’s Victims

The celebrations may also give mountain climbers throughout the world pause to contemplate the costs of mimicking the original feat. Thousands of climbers try to follow the pioneers to the top every year, and, although they usually take an easier route, a surprising number still die in the attempt. Four climbers were crushed to death in rock-slides Wednesday. A dozen have died in the last week. The death toll last year was 45.

A recent heat wave that has cracked rocks and melted snow, precipitating slides and avalanches, has increased the dangers of the mountain. But government officials insist that natural disaster accounts for a small portion of the deaths each year: Many climbers make foolish mistakes or try to cross glaciers and rock faces without the right equipment.

The dangers, in any case, do not seem to deter the climbers. As many as 200 alpinists make the attempt every day during the warm months.

The conquest of Mont Blanc 200 years ago came in an era when European philosophers had only recently discovered the wonders of nature and science. The mystery of mountains, in fact, was regarded as the most exalted of natural phenomena, and a climber could satisfy both the needs of science and the romance of exploration by reaching the summit of a mountain with enough instruments for a few measurements.

Paccard, a 27-year-old Chamonix physician, followed this mold and set out for the summit of Mont Blanc with Jacques Balmat, a 22-year-old peasant who would usually earn extra money by searching for rock crystal in the mountains. The climb was a courageous act, for many people in Chamonix believed that no one could live through a single night on that mountain.

No Modern Equipment

Paccard and Balmat left Chamonix without any rope, ice axes, boot crampons or other pieces of modern equipment.

Witnesses in Chamonix with telescopes and binoculars watched the two reach the summit at precisely 6:23 p.m. on Aug. 8, 1786. The church bells of the village rang out. Paccard and Balmat remained for 34 minutes so that the doctor could take some measurements, and they then headed down the mountain, reaching Chamonix a little less than 48 hours after they had started out.

Horace-Benedict de Saussure, a rich Geneva aristocrat with an avid interest in the natural sciences, had offered a prize to the first climber to reach the summit. Paccard, uninterested in the reward, sent his partner to nearby Geneva to collect the money for himself.

A year later, Saussure made the climb in a large expedition. Saussure was well known among scientists and philosophers in Europe, and his account of his four hours of experiments there was widely read throughout Europe, quickly overshadowing the feat of the two men who had reached the summit first. On top of this, reports spread, apparently inspired by Balmat during fits of drinking, that Paccard had lagged behind in the climb up the mountain.

Accounts of the early climbs encouraged many others to try to reach the top of Mont Blanc. Chamonix, in fact, quickly became a resort for adventurous European, especially English, tourists. Many analysts date the start of the sport of mountain climbing in Europe to the accounts of the first climbs of Mont Blanc.

Noted Author’s Account

In 1832, when Paccard was dead and Balmat in his 70s, Alexandre Dumas Sr., the author of “The Three Musketeers” and other extraordinarily popular French novels, appeared to destroy the reputation of Paccard forever by publishing an account of a meeting with Balmat in Chamonix. In those days, Chamonix, which is now on the Italian border, was a part of the Italian state of Piedmont, and the King of Piedmont had granted Balmat the right to carry the name “Balmat-Mont Blanc.”

After numerous glasses of wine at a dinner with Dumas, a talkative Balmat-Mont Blanc confided the “truth” about the first climb.

Balmat, whom Dumas called “the Christopher Columbus of the Alps,” said that Paccard had weakened so much during their assault on the mountain that Balmat had left him behind while climbing to the summit alone. After reaching the top, Balmat went on, he climbed down again to a listless Paccard on the slopes and dragged him up to the top.

That account was so devastating that Paccard’s reputation remained without much honor until now. Chamonix had monuments to both Saussure and Balmat but not to the courageous doctor. In the 20th Century, however, historians, sifting through a good deal of evidence, including signed documents left behind by Balmat, concluded that Paccard did reach the top of the summit on his own strength that day 200 years ago, probably a step ahead of Balmat.