Mont Blanc and snowboarding. 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 km (7¼-mile) Mont Blanc Tunnel, constructed between 1957 and 1965, runs beneath the mountain and is a major trans-Alpine transport route. The first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc was on 8 August 1786 by Jacques Balmat and the doctor Michel Paccard. This climb, initiated
San Gabriel Peak San Gabriel Peak San Gabriel Peak is a summit in the San Gabriel Mountains in the U.S. state of California. It was named by the United States Geological Survey in 1894 and is located in the Angeles National Forest. This peak was first named "The Commodore" for Commodore Perry Switzer. The name is derived from the Misión del Santo Arcangel San Gabriel de los Temblores. From this mission had already come the names of the San Gabriel River and San Gabriel Canyon, the mountain range itself and the entire San Gabriel Valley. The steep south face drops approximately 1,000 feet