WORDS
SAM POTHECARY
ILLUSTRATION
CALLUM LEWIS
I C O N S
The story behind the most
famous landmarks around
the network
Mont Blanc
THE FACTS
LOCATION
THE ALPS
AGE
BETWEEN 23-34
MILLION YEARS
OTHER NAMES
WHITE MOUNTAIN,
THE WHITE LADY
GOOD FOR
CLIMBING,
EXTREME SKIING
VISITOR NUMBERS
AROUND 30,000 ATTEMPT
TO CLIMB IT EACH YEAR
DID YOU KNOW?
4,810m
Height above sea level
6,000
Number of climbing fatalities
11.6km
Length of tunnel through it
-43°C
Coldest temperature recorded
on the mountain (in 1893)
NOWAND VENN
Mont Blanc
Famous
peak
Posh
biro
The most expensive
Montblanc fountain
pen ever sold cost
$730,000 (€538,500).
FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING
MOUNT ELBRUS, RUSSIA
5,642m
1808
Marie Paradis is the first
woman to reach the summit
1786
First recorded ascent
by Jacques Balmat and
Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard
ASCENT THROUGH TIME
2013
Kilian Jornet beats the fastest
overall time for ascent and
descent, with 4 hours, 57
minutes and 40 seconds
2007
Year a Jacuzzi party is
thrown at the top
1960
Henri Giraud lands
an airplane on the
30.48m-long summit
The White Lady is considered the
birthplace and symbol of modern
mountaineering…
PEAK PERFORMANCE
How does Mont Blanc compare to
the network’s other big mountain players?
MONT BLANC, FRANCE
4,810m
TEIDE, SPAIN
3,718m
MOUNT SINAI,
EGYPT
2,285m
BEN
NEVIS, UK
1,344m
‘The
Mountain
of God’: many
believe Moses
received the Ten
Commandments
here
Barrels
of beer, a
wheelbarrow, an
organ, a piano and even
an entire bedroom have
been carried to the
top of this peak by
climbers
Columbus
apparently
saw an eruption
of this now-dormant
volcano on his voyage
of discovery
in 1492
Europe’s
highest
mountain; once
voted to have the
world’s nastiest
outhouse
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