Michel Paccard

Eventhough he wasn’t standing beside Balmat looking toward Mont Blanc, the town simply couldn’t fail to honor Doctor Paccard! Michel-Gabriel Paccard was born in 1757 in Chamonix, then part of the Duchy of Savoy in the Kingdom of Sardinia. So its no surprise that he studied in Turin, the Sardinian capital. Having shared passions with the scholar Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, they became friends and, together, they dreamed of reaching Mont Blanc’s summit to calculate its exact altitude. But when it came to the actual climb, it was Jacques Balmat who joined him – a crystal hunter and chamois tracker, accustomed to clambering about the mountains.

The two men had met not long before, when Doctor Paccard was caring for Balmat’s seriously ill daughter. Balmat claimed he’d found a route during his latest solo attempt, and Paccard begged him to let him come along. Doctor Paccard brought with him a compass, thermometer, and barometer, planning to conduct some scientific experiments. However, neither man was equipped with ropes, ice axes, or even crampons. Such lack of preparation would be unthinkable today! Legend has it that Paccard, blinded by the snow’s glare, made the return journey with great difficulty, his eyes barely able to open. Their expedition began very early, around 4 AM, from the Côte alpine pasture above Les Bossons, where they’d spent the night. They reached the summit around 6 PM, after 14 hours of climbing and intense effort. The return, probably around 11 PM, made for an expedition of roughly 20 hours in extreme conditions, without modern equipment, sunglasses, or technical clothing. Tragically, Jacques Balmat’s daughter died while her father was becoming a national hero, and he learned of her death when he returned from the summit. Now, this was a huge accomplishment for the time – essentially the moment that gave birth to mountaineering as we know it today. So I’ll leave you to give Michel Paccard the salute he deserves before continuing your visit.