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
Jacques-Michel Hurel de Lamare for private audiences, where he enjoyed greater acclaim. He married into wealth in 1815, after which he mostly retired from performance, dying in Caen in 1823. His performance skills were legendary in their time, praised by François-Joseph Fétis among others. He does not appear to have been gifted as a composer, however, and it is not clear whether any works of his survive. Several works were published under his name during his lifetime, including four cello concertos, but these were likely composed by his close friend Daniel Auber. Jacques-Michel Hurel de Lamare Jacques-Michel Hurel de Lamare (1 May 1772 –