How high is Mont Blanc?
Every two years a call is put out to assemble a team to head up to the top of Mont Blanc to assist with taking precise measurements to find out the exact altitude of Mont Blanc. It may come as a surprise to some that not so long ago, the summit was 4807m and the last measurement in 2007 showed Mont Blanc was at 4810.90m above sea level.
This year a team of 24 headed up to Mont Blanc, including six guides from the valley, Chamonix mayor and all round general superman Eric Fournier, Gilles Bernard who is charged with overseeing the 2018 Winter Olympic bid for Annecy.
The group made it to the summit and spent over two hours taking GPS measurements and precise readings. At the same time, a banner supporting the Annecy 2018 bid was rolled out and the groups aims to find out the overall height difference between the Paquier in Annecy (the green areas right by the lake in the town) and the summit of Mont Blanc.
The team also took measurements of the volume of the glacier which, with the climate change, are becoming increasingly important, as glaciologists are studying how it will affect the mountains.
Sadly the weather wasn't on their side as the winds gusted at up to 60km/h and the temperature plummeted to -15 degrees. In fact, one of the team had to be helicoptered back down to the valley after suffering frostbite from handling delicate measuring equipment bare-handed.
And if you're waiting for us to tell you the results, nothing was announced following the expedition, we'll have to wait until the official announcement in Annecy on the 5th November.
