Bossons Glacier

In the 17th century the Bossons glacier extended right down into Chamonix, reaching the settlement of Le Fouly, engulfing farmland, barns and houses.

In 1777 the traveller and correspondent, William Coxe, observed in his letters that "we mounted by the side of the glacier of Bosson, to les Murailles de Glace, so called from their resemblance to walls: they form the large ranges of ice of prodigious thickness and solidity, rising abruptly and parallel to each other.

Near them were pyramids and cone of ice of all forms and sizes, shooting to a very considerable height, in the most beautiful and fantastic shapes."

[4][5] On the 20th of August 1820, an avalanche killed three Chamonix guides of the expedition of Dr Joseph Hamel, a Russian naturalist.

Two of the surviving guides from the expedition were still alive, and one, 72 year-old Joseph-Marie Couttet, positively identified the remains.