Mont Maudit

Mont Blanc du Tacul (4,248 m) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif of the French Alps situated midway between the Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc. The official first ascent of Mont Blanc du Tacul was by a guideless party comprising Charles Hudson, Edward John Stevenson, Christopher and James Grenville Smith, E. S. Kennedy, Charles Ainslie and G. C. Joad on 8 August 1855. However, Courmayeur guides may have already ascended the peak during their attempts in 1854 and 1855 to force a way up Mont Blanc from the Italian side.

The Aiguilles du Diable (literally "Devil's Needles", German: Teufelsspitzen) are a group of five rock needles, all over 4,000 metres high, on the southeast arête (also called the Teufelsgrat or Devil's Ridge) of the Mont Blanc du Tacul. The pinnacles lie within the French part of the Mont Blanc Massif in the departement of Haute-Savoie. The highest needle is L’Isolée (4,114 m), followed by Pointe Carmen (4,109 m), Pointe Médiane (4,097 m), Pointe Chaubert (4,074 m) and Corne du Diable (4,064 m). The first needle to be climbed was Pointe Carmen in 1923 which was conquered by Brégault, Chevalier and De Lépiney. In 1925 the others were first climbed: initially L’Isolée by Antoine Blanchet and Armand Charlet, then Corne du Diable and Pointe Chaubert by Armand Charlet and Jean Chaubert. The last to be ascended was Pointe Médiane by Antoine Blanchet, Jean Chaubert, Armand Charlet and Devouassoud. The first time all the needles were climbed in a single expedition was in 1928 by the Americans, Miriam O'Brien and Robert L. M. Underhill with Armand Charlet guiding them. Today a crossing of the Aiguilles du Diable is usually done as a rock climbing tour, which, in summer, avoids almost any contact with snow. The overall difficulty is assessed as "difficult" on the SAC scale and climbing grade V+ on the UIAA scale.

The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as the Mont Blanc massif, are shared with Switzerland and Italy. At 4,808 metres (15,774 ft), Mont Blanc (Italian: Monte Bianco), on the France–Italy border, is the highest mountain in the Alps, and the highest Western European mountain.Notable towns in the French Alps include Grenoble, Chamonix, Annecy, Chambéry, Évian-les-Bains and Albertville.

The Western Alps are the western part of the Alpine Range including the southeastern part of France (e.g. Savoie), the whole of Monaco, the northwestern part of Italy (i.e. Piedmont and the Aosta Valley) and the southwestern part of Switzerland (e.g. Valais). In the southeast the range is bounded by the Italian Padan Plain. In the west, the valley of the Rhone river separates it from the Massif Central. The northernmost part of the Western Alps - in the wide meaning of the term - is formed by the Swiss Prealps Sub-Range. The peaks and mountain passes are higher compared to the Eastern Alps, while the range itself is not so broad and more arched.

The Mont Blanc massif (French: Massif du Mont-Blanc; Italian: Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major independent summits, each over 4,000 metres (13,123 ft) in height. It is named after Mont Blanc (4,808 metres (15,774 ft)), the highest point in western Europe and the European Union. Because of its considerable overall altitude, a large proportion of the massif is covered by glaciers, which include the Mer de Glace and the Miage Glacier – the longest glaciers in France and Italy, respectively. The massif forms a watershed between the vast catchments of the rivers Rhône and Po, and a tripoint between France, Italy and Switzerland; it also marks the border between two climate regions by separating the northern and western Alps from the southern Alps. The mountains of the massif consist mostly of granite and gneiss rocks and at high altitudes the vegetation is an arctic-alpine flora. The valleys that delimit the massif were used as communication routes by the Romans until they left around the 5th century AD. The region remained of some military importance through to the mid-20th century. A peasant farming economy operated within these valleys for many centuries until the glaciers and mountains were "discovered" by the outside world in the 18th century. Word of these impressive sights began to spread, and Mont Blanc was first climbed in 1786, marking the start of the sport of mountaineering. The region is now a major tourist destination, drawing in over six million visitors per year. It provides a wide range of opportunities for outdoor recreation and activities such as sight-seeing, hiking, rock climbing, mountaineering and skiing. Around one hundred people a year die across its mountains and, occasionally, bodies have been lost and entombed in its glaciers for decades. Access into the mountains is facilitated by cable cars, mountain railways and mountain huts which offer overnight refuge to climbers and skiers. The long-distance Tour du Mont Blanc hiking trail circumnavigates the whole massif in an 11-day trek of 170 kilometres (110 mi). The Mont Blanc Tunnel connects the French town of Chamonix on the northern side with the Italian town of Courmayeur in the south. The high mountains have provided many opportunities for scientific research, including neutrino measurements within the tunnel and impact of climate change on its highest slopes. Recent rises in average temperatures have led to significant glacial retreat across the massif and an awareness of the need for better environmental protection, including a call for World Heritage Site status.

Mont Blanc (French: Mont Blanc [mɔ̃ blɑ̃]; Italian: Monte Bianco [ˈmonte ˈbjaŋko], both meaning "white mountain") is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe, and the highest mountain in Europe outside the Caucasus mountains, rising 4,807.81 m (15,774 ft) above sea level, located on the French-Italian border. It is the second-most prominent mountain in Europe, after Mount Elbrus, and it is the eleventh most prominent mountain summit in the world.It gives its name to the Mont Blanc massif, which straddles parts of France, Italy and Switzerland. Mont Blanc's summit lies on the watershed line between the valleys of Ferret and Veny in Italy, and the valleys of Montjoie, and Arve in France. Ownership of the summit area has long been disputed between France and Italy. The Mont Blanc massif is popular for outdoor activities like hiking, climbing, trail running and winter sports like skiing, and snowboarding. The most popular climbing route to the summit of Mont Blanc is the Goûter Route, which typically takes two days. The three towns and their communes which surround Mont Blanc are Courmayeur in Aosta Valley, Italy; and Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and Chamonix in Haute-Savoie, France. The latter town was the site of the first Winter Olympics. A cable car ascends and crosses the mountain range from Courmayeur to Chamonix through the Col du Géant. The 11.6 km (7+1⁄4 mi) Mont Blanc Tunnel, constructed between 1957 and 1965, runs beneath the mountain and is a major transalpine transport route.

Mont Blanc de Courmayeur (French: [mɔ̃ blɑ̃ də kuʁmajœʁ]; Italian: Monte Bianco di Courmayeur) is a point (4,748 m (15,577 ft)) on the south-east ridge of Mont Blanc that forms the peak of the massive south-east face of the mountain. It is connected to the main summit via the Col Major (c. 4,730 m (15,520 ft)). Despite its minimal topographic prominence, it appears as the second-highest peak in the Alps on the official list of Alpine four-thousanders of the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA) for its impressive appearance and its importance for mountaineering.The peak can be reached from the main summit over the Bosses ridge. The ascents over the south-east / Peuterey and south / Brouillard ridges are very challenging. The summit of Mont Blanc de Courmayeur is marked as lying entirely within Italy on the Italian Istituto Geografico Militare (IGM) map, while on the French Institut Géographique National (IGN) map the summit lies on the border between France and Italy. A demarcation agreement, signed on 7 March 1861, defines the local border between France and Italy. Currently this act and the attached maps (showing the border on the top of Mont Blanc, 4810 m) are legally valid for both the French and Italian governments.

The Grand Pilier d'Angle (4,243 m) is a buttress on the southern side of Mont Blanc in the Mont Blanc massif in the Aosta Valley, Italy. The first ascent from the valley was by James Eccles with guides Michel Payot and Alphonse Payot on 30 July 1877 during an ascent of the Peuterey ridge, although the summit had been visited on 20 August 1822 by F. Clissold with guides J. M. Couttet, M. Bossonney, D. Couttet, P. Favret and J. B. Simond on the descent from their first ascent of Mont Blanc de Courmayeur. The first ascent of the pillar (the north-east face) itself was by Walter Bonatti and Toni Gobbi on 3 August 1957. Bonatti said after the climb that "the mixed terrain of the face was without doubt the most sombre, the most savage and the most dangerous of any that I have ever encountered in the Alps." The first winter ascent of the Bonatti-Gobbi route was by A. Dworak, J. Kurczab, A. Mróz and T. Piotrowski between 5 and 9 March 1971. The first solo ascent of the route was by Nicolas Jaeger on 3 August 1975. Other well-known routes on the face include the Cecchinel-Nominé (Walter Cecchinel and Georges Nominé, 17 September 1971; the Boivin-Vallençant of 1975 adds a direct finish to this route) and Divine Providence (Patrick Gabarrou and François Marsigny, 5–7 June 1984). The first solo ascent of this route was by Jean-Christophe Lafaille in 1990, who said, "This route is the most difficult and involving in the whole of the Mont Blanc massif."

Air India Flight 245 was a scheduled Air India passenger flight from Bombay to London via Cairo and Geneva. On the morning of 3 November 1950, the Lockheed L-749A Constellation serving the flight crashed into Mont Blanc, France, while approaching Geneva. All 48 aboard were killed. The plane operating the flight was a named Malabar Princess, registered VT-CQP. It was piloted by Captain Alan R. Saint, 34, and co-pilot V. Y. Korgaokar and was carrying 40 passengers and 8 crew. While over France, descending towards Geneva Airport, the flight crashed into the French Alps in stormy weather, killing all on board.

The Rocher de la Tournette (or, simply, 'La Tournette') is a prominent rocky point on the icy summit ridge of Mont Blanc between the Petite Bosse and the summit. The highest point lies at 4,677 metres (15,344 ft) above sea level, and can be most easily reached on an ascent of Mont Blanc via the Goûter Route. Whilst not sufficiently isolated from other summits to be regarded by the UIAA as one of the 82 primary 4000 metre summits of the Alps, the organisation does nevertheless include Rocher de la Tournette on its 'Enlarged list of lesser summits'. This list defines a further 46 such points of secondary mountaineering or morphological interest, of which the Rocher de la Tournette is the highest.The shoulder of this rocky subsidiary summit offers a remote mountaineering route from the Quintino Sella Hut. Known as the Tournette Spur (fr: l’éperon de la Tournette), it enables the final 'Bosses Ridge' section of the Goûter Route to be reached from the Italian side of Mont Blanc. This infrequently climbed route is nowadays graded AD on the adjectival climbing scale and was first climbed on 2 July 1872 by T Kennedy, J Carrel and J Fischer. The first winter ascent of the Tournette Spur was made by the three Sella brothers and their guides, including Emile Rey on 5 January 1888.: 58 

The Grand Capucin (3,838 m) is a rock pinnacle located underneath Mont Blanc du Tacul in the Mont Blanc Massif in Haute-Savoie, France.

The Grands Mulets Hut (French: Refuge des Grands Mulets) is a mountain refuge in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps at an altitude of 3,051 m. It is owned by the Club Alpin Francais. The hut is located on a pyramidal rock island, at the junction of two streams of the Bossons Glacier on the north side of Mont Blanc. If the state of the glacier is not too severe, the hut is wardened in summer and can be used as an alternative route of ascent to the summit of Mont Blanc, following the original historic route by the first ascensionists. Nowadays the hut is used more frequently by ski-mountaineers in spring, or as a more sheltered and alternative route of descent from Mont Blanc than the much more popular Goûter route, though route-finding can be difficult in fog and requires prior knowledge of the crevassed state of the Bossons glacier below the hut.: 23 : 269 The first Grands Mulets hut was built in 1853, then replaced in 1896. The current refuge was built in 1960 and inaugurated on August 7 by Maurice Herzog.