An Impromptu Ascent of Mont Blanc

An Impromptu Ascent of Mont Blanc is a book by W. H. Le Mesurier. The preface says the aim is to make the narrative a true and unvarnished account of what we did and how we did it, and to present the accompanying illustrations, which for the most part are taken from photographs, free from exaggeration. The narrator says the party had left Martigny at four in the morning and had walked most of the way to Forclaz, and the whole of it from thence over the Col de Balme.

The narrator had not the remotest intention of making the ascent, so his slumbers were undisturbed by the excitement which they say invariably precedes the undertaking. The Valley of Chamonix lies nearly east and west, is so narrow that it might almost be termed a ravine, and is rather more than ten miles long and less than half a mile in width. Nearing the Petit Plateau, the party is able to examine the much-feared avalanches, which were almost invisible during the ascent and in appearance not unlike chalk cliffs.