Jacques Balmat Balmat was criticized for his autobiographical account of the climb, later published in English as "Jacques Balmat, or The First Ascent of Mont Blanc", since his account downplayed the role of Dr. Paccard. Milner describes Balmat's story as "cloudily romantic and largely fictional" and quotes four analysts of mountaineering history who discovered errors in Balmat's version of events. Shipton describes Balmat as "boastful and conceited" and that "in character, he was both vain and mean. Success went to his head, and he soon began to amplify his part in the exploit." Balmat died by falling off a cliff while prospecting
Climbers (novel) Climbers (novel) Climbers is a literary novel by the British author M. John Harrison. First published in 1989 and apparently set several years earlier, the book had been out of print for several years but was reissued in paperback by Phoenix in 2004. It has attracted considerable critical acclaim and won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 1989. It was not, however, universally popular with the British climbing public and received at least one negative review in the popular magazine Climber. The novel concerns the adventures of “Mike”, who, recovering from a failed marriage, falls in with a