Jacques Balmat it turns out, possesses an extraordinary mountaineering sense, an unerring instinct for the crevasses and seracs of the glaciers ..." After the successful ascent, Balmat collected the reward offered 25 years before by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure to the first man who could climb Mont Blanc. On 3 August 1787 he assisted de Saussure himself to reach the summit with a party of about 17 people. During the Napoleonic Wars, Savoy fell under French control, and Citizen Jacques Balmat became a member of the council of the commune. He led an unsuccessful attempt to introduce Merino sheep into the Chamonix valley.
The Climbers (band) The Climbers (band) The Climbers is a British band, formed by Nick Hemming and Christian Hardy of The Leisure Society with their childhood friend, Tim West. West introduced Hemming and Hardy to one another and for a period the three lived together in South London. Though formation of The Climbers predates The Leisure Society, their debut album "The Good Ship" was not released until May 2010. The album took over six years to make, and was recorded predominantly in hired cottages in Wales and Devon with additional sessions in South London, Brighton, Burton-On-Trent and Northumberland. It received mostly positive reviews,