Jacques Balmat for gold in the Sixt valley in 1834. Jacques Balmat Jacques Balmat, called "le Mont Blanc" (1762–1834) was a mountaineer, a Savoyard mountain guide, born in the Chamonix valley in Savoy, at this time part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. A chamois hunter and collector of crystals, Balmat completed the first ascent of Mont Blanc with physician Michel-Gabriel Paccard on 8 August 1786. For this feat, King Victor Amadeus III gave him the honorary title "le Mont Blanc". Balmat and Paccard's ascent of Mont Blanc was a major accomplishment in the early history of mountaineering. C. Douglas Milner wrote "The
Highest unclimbed mountain before been explored, especially since some high peaks in the Greater Ranges are so remote that they were unknown to local inhabitants when first sighted by European explorers. The world's third tallest peak, Kangchenjunga, has been summited a number of times, but after the first climbers of the peak agreed to honor the wishes of locals and not set foot on the topmost part of the mountain, succeeding mountaineering parties may have followed this tradition. Similarly, Nanda Devi has also been climbed but the topmost summit was not ascended and the primary summit is now off limits to climbers. Machapuchare