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Updated: June 28, 2025
In a book was a record of all the ascents which have ever been made, beginning with Nos. 1 and 2 being those of Jacques Balmat and De Saussure, in 1787, and ending with No. 685, which wasn't cold yet.
Two guides, Balmat and Alexandre, lead two mules, long-eared, slow-footed, considerate brutes, who have borne a thousand ladies over a thousand pokerish places, and are ready to bear a thousand more. Equipped with low-backed saddles, they stand, their noses down, their eyes contemplatively closed, their whole appearance impressing one with an air of practical talent and reliableness.
In a book was a record of all the ascents which have ever been made, beginning with Nos. 1 and 2 being those of Jacques Balmat and De Saussure, in 1787, and ending with No. 685, which wasn't cold yet.
Four months before the first remains were found, a Chamonix guide named Balmat a relative of one of the lost men was in London, and one day encountered a hale old gentleman in the British Museum, who said: "I overheard your name. Are you from Chamonix, Monsieur Balmat?" "Yes, sir." "Haven't they found the bodies of my three guides, yet? I am Dr. Hamel." "Alas, no, monsieur."
This is Balmat's hand, I remember it so well!" and the old man bent down and kissed it reverently, then closed his fingers upon it in an affectionate grasp, crying out, "I could never have dared to believe that before quitting this world it would be granted me to press once more the hand of one of those brave comrades, the hand of my good friend Balmat."
Davouassoux, more than eighty years old, contemplated the mournful remains mutely and with a vacant eye, for his intelligence and his memory were torpid with age; but Couttet's faculties were still perfect at seventy-two, and he exhibited strong emotion. He said: "Pierre Balmat was fair; he wore a straw hat. This bit of skull, with the tuft of blond hair, was his; this is his hat.
There was a statue to him, and another to De Saussure, in the hall of our hotel, and a metal plate on the door of a room upstairs bore an inscription to the effect that that room had been occupied by Albert Smith. Balmat and De Saussure discovered Mont Blanc so to speak but it was Smith who made it a paying property.
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