Michel-Gabriel Paccard

Michel Gabriel Paccard (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl ɡabʁijɛl pakaʁ]; 1757–1827) was a Savoyard medical doctor and alpinist, citizen of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

[citation needed] Due to his passion for botany and minerals, he met Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, who initiated the race to be the first to ascend Mont Blanc.

[citation needed] In 1975 Gaston Rébuffat wrote "Like Saussure a devotee of the natural sciences, he has a dream: to carry a barometer to the summit and take a reading there.

[2] Balmat and Paccard's ascent of Mont Blanc was a major accomplishment in the early history of mountaineering.

C. Douglas Milner wrote "The ascent itself was magnificent; an amazing feat of endurance and sustained courage, carried through by these two men only, unroped and without ice axes, heavily burdened with scientific equipment and with long iron-pointed batons.

Portrait of Michel Gabriel Paccard. Reproduced from an old portrait in the possession of M. J. P, Cachat, of Chamonix (his great grandson). From a photograph by Tairraz, of Chamonix
Michel-Gabriel Paccard – Monument erected at Chamonix .