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
Deaf climbers with an artificial leg, and a person with epilepsy. Only two of the individuals in the group did not reach the summit. Heidi Zimmer is the first deaf woman to reach the summit of Mt. McKinley in Alaska. She is the first deaf individual to reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, as well as Mt. Elbrus in the Republic of Russia which has an elevation of 18,510 feet. She has a goal of completing the seven summits which consist of the highest peak in each continent. This is considered a huge accomplishment in the climbing world. Yasayuki Okobu,