The TMB Day 2, Chamonix AM/Shuttle to Les Houches PM
Sunday 4 August 2024
History of the TBM:
Originally formed by shepherds moving their cattle from valley to valley, the hiking trails that make up the Tour du Mont Blanc circuit have been around for centuries. But it was the Swiss geologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure who made the Tour du Mont Blanc public knowledge in the mid-1700s. He was searching for a way to climb Mont Blanc and ended up walking the entire circumference of the mountain looking for the best route.
The exact path around Mont Blanc that Saussure took is unknown, but he returned time and time again, desperate to find a way to the summit and having no luck. After a few failed attempts, Saussure offered a reward to the first person to reach the summit. In 1786 two Chamonix locals, physician Michel Paccard and hunter and crystal collector Jacques Balmat, claimed the prize – as the first ascent. In 1787, a year after the first ascent Saussure, accompanied by a party of 18 servants and guides, also reached the summit where he conducted a number of scientific experiments and became the 3rd person to summit the infamous mountain.
A bronze statue was erected in Chamonix’s main square in 1887 to commemorate the first ascent. From behind, two men with one of them pointing to Mont Blanc with an outstretched arm. View it from the front and it turns out the statue is not of Balmat and Paccard the two who first summitted, but of Balmat and his ‘financier’ Saussure. Why was Paccard not part of this commemorative statue?
It turns out the account of the first ascent of Mont Blanc was manipulated to promote one man (Balmat) and belittle his companion (Paccard). The instigator of this misrepresentation was Marc-Theodore Bourrit, an Alpine traveller who had himself failed to find a route to the summit of Mont Blanc and who wrote accounts of the successful ascent denigrating the role Paccard played and promoting Balmat as the ‘braver and fitter’ leader. He even wrote to the King of Sardinia (the Chamonix region of France at that time being part of the Kingdom of Sardinia) who lauded Balmat as ‘Balmat le Mont Blanc’.
Paccard reacted by demanding Balmat sign an affidavit denying Bourrit’s version of events. It had, in fact, been Paccard who was the leader of the two and who reached the summit first. Sadly, by now the damage was done, and Balmat (despite the affidavit that he signed for Paccard) continued to misrepresent his part in the ascent, and Chamonix chose to believe him. For many years thereafter articles and books including Balmat’s own autobiography continued to promote Balmat. It was on the bicentenary in 1986 that a second bronze statue was erected to commemorate Dr Paccard.
Our morning in Chamonix has been a never ending hunt for nourishment. We searched and searched for a cup of coffee early this morning, finally finding one that was less than satisfying. Then we tried to get a taxi to a high altitude mountain chalet for lunch. The app cancelled on us 4 times. So we walked the town, took a few more lovely pictures and then decided to make our way to Les Houches.
We made our way to the bus stop and onward to Les Houches (pronounced Lay-zoosh) to check into our hotel, The Hotel du Bois — our starting point for tomorrow’s hike. With that settled, the next mission: food. The friendly gal at the front desk recommended a beautiful spot by a lake (“lac”) about a 45-minute walk away. Perfect, we thought!
Well... not quite. When we finally arrived, they informed us the kitchen was closed. And so, the great food quest continued. After some wandering, we finally struck gold at a cute little place with great options for both of us—at 2pm, our very first bite of the day. Thankfully, our hotel served us dinner, and we’re reassured that there’ll be plenty of food options along the trail tomorrow. Just one of those funny, food-chasing kind of days.
We walked to the actualy official starting point of the hike just to familiarize ourselves so we knew where we were going first thing in the morning. For a little extra good luck, we stopped at an old 1800s church on the way back to the hotel to say a prayer for our journey: “May it all unfold with ease, grace, magic, and miracles.”
