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.
Snowmass Mountain for travel on the snowfield. Later in the summer there is more travel on talus (scree) and more danger from rockfall. An alternative in snow-free conditions is to hike up to the saddle between the peak and Hagerman Peak. From that point there are climbers' trails which proceed on the opposite (west) side of the ridge to the summit. A different and much less used route climbs the west side of Snowmass Mountain from Geneva Lake, which is accessed from the North Fork of the Crystal River. Snowmass Mountain Snowmass Mountain is a fourteen thousand foot mountain in the U.S.