The view from Mont Blanc is terrible
It’s important that I provide useful, up to date information to visitors to the site. So I forget why I was happily browsing the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica.
It is sometimes quite an interesting read, albeit a bit dry. Someone told me that in many subjects it is still a leading reference guide, but I can’t quite think which they may be.
Are there really many subjects where our knowledge hasn’t increased over the last 100 years? Many places that have been unchanged by two world wars and zillions of other skirmishes? A field of science that is the same now as in 1911, before Einstein and DNA came along? Cars had hardly been invented and modern art, well, wasn’t very modern.
So in the description of Mont Blanc I was surprised by the following comment: “owing to the great height of the mountain, the view is unsatisfactory, though very extensive“. I assume the writer hadn’t climbed Mont Blanc himself (neither have I, I hasten to add, and won’t until they have installed an escalator) but even so, it seemed an unlikely comment to make.
The picture above, of course, is the view from Mont Blanc. There would be little point me using a picture from a different mountain. True, it’s perhaps not the greatest mountain photo in the world - a bit more sunshine, and a few more snow-capped mountains would help - but with my budget of one dollar per photo what do you expect. I’m afraid I don’t have the time to go and climb the mountain just to take a photo for this blog.
Even so it is clear that to describe the view as ‘unsatisfactory’ is a bit of a tough judgement.
So if your holiday plans this year include climbing Mont Blanc, don’t let the old Brittanica put you off, I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time. And the climb will be that much easier since there is clearly no point in taking your camera along with you.
