2023-08-07 23:45:00
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PODCAST. Three years before the storming of the Bastille, a doctor guided by a Chamoniard carried out this great first without crampons or ice axe.
Frederic Lewino and Gwendoline Dos Santos
Published on 08/07/2019 at 11:45 p.m. – Modified on 08/07/2023 at 11:45 p.m.
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Today, climbing Mont Blanc has almost become a health walk undertaken each year by hundreds of men, women and even children… Two centuries ago, it was a different story. The “cursed mountain”, as it was called then, seemed an impossible Grail to conquer. The brave who attempted an expedition had broken their teeth there.
On August 7, 1786, before dawn broke, two men left Chamonix. The one leading the way is Jacques Balmat, a 24-year-old from Chamonix who raises a few cows and sells the crystals he finds in the mountains. On occasion, he serves as a guide for the rare visitors who venture into the Chamonix valley. The one who brings up the rear is the young village doctor, Michel Gabriel Paccard, 29…
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