Mont Blanc massif led to calls to limit access to the most popular summits and for the mountains to be treated with greater respect. The Mont Blanc massif has provided numerous opportunities for academic research, dating back to the very first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 during which Michel Paccard carried scientific equipment to confirm it as the highest summit. In 1820, an ill-fated expedition led by Dr Hamel included pigeons intended for release at varying altitudes to measure the impact of reduced air density on their ability to fly. In 1890, Joseph Vallot built a small meteorological observatory at approximately between
Gabriel Jacques Surenne Gabriel Jacques Surenne Gabriel Jacques Surenne FSA FASE (1777-1858) was a 19th-century French-born military historian living in Scotland who authored numerous publications in the fields of warfare and battle analysis and also in French grammar. He was born in Compiegne in France on 25 October 1777. His early life is unclear other than various references made by himself as to having been trained in Paris. A newspaper epitaph mentions his war service with Napoleon Bonaparte in his successful Italian Campaign. He appears in Edinburgh around 1830, both as a teacher and prodigious author of educational French text books. He was