Mont Blanc Mountain Is Shrinking

Mont Blanc Mountain is shrinking

Mont Blanc, France’s iconic snow-capped mountain that stands on the border of France and Italy has lost approximately seven feet of elevation in the past 24 months according to scientists at Frances’s Haute-Savoie. The famous mountain is now 15,766 feet tall, the shortest it has been since the organization started measuring its elevation.

“The top of Mont Blanc is like a dune, it moves, and it is not the first time we have measured the height variations of more than two meters,” explains Cecile Taffin of the UNGE surveyors union.

You can likely blame climate change for this change in elevation. Denis Borel, one of the surveyors working on the project says the shrinking is likely due to a loss of ice and snow at the summit. He says the peak has lost 3,500 cubic meters of ice since 2021 representing roughly the volume of an Olympic swimming pool. Europe’s glaciers have lost a whopping 30% of their volume in recent decades.

What’s fascinating about this study is that climatologists and glaciologists say it takes roughly 50 years of measurement to be able to draw conclusions regarding global warming. The summit of the mountain is constantly changing altitude and position with changes up to 5 meters. Shifts in wind and precipitation could be behind the change as well. High winds can literally blow snow and ice from the peak.

Mont Blanc is the inspiration for the famous brand of luxury writing pens, accessories and fragrances. The company was founded in 1906 when a designer from Berlin named August Eberstein teamed up with Hamburg banker, Alfred Nehemais to develop a range of simple-to-use fountain pens. What was revolutionary was the built-in inkwell that made using the beautifully crafted pens. Reaction was so enthusiastic, the firm was quickly purchased by a trio of men: Wilhelm Dziambor, Christian Lausen and Claus Johannes Voss who quickly made Montblanc a worldwide name.

The mantra of the company from day one was “manufacturers of high-class gold and fountain pens” and was originally named “Simplo Filler Pen Co” referring to its simplistic pen design. Legend has it that the name “Montblanc” emerged during a high-stakes card game in 1909. A year later, the name Montblanc was trademarked, a nod to Europe’s highest mountain. The name symbolized the brand’s high quality and excellent craftsmanship. This was emphasized by the company’s emblem of a rounded white star meant to represent a snow-capped peak. It appeared on packaging for the first time in 1913.

Montblanc’s major foray into fine fragrance began in 2011 with the fresh, clean and sensual Legend eau de toilette, a masculine fougere meant to evoke the natural grandeur of the Montblanc mountain. Opening with Italian bergamot and French lavender, the scent blends notes of pineapple leaf, lemony verbena, oakmoss, apple, rose, geranium, sandalwood and tonka. It’s a modern-day masterpiece and a bestseller around the world.

The latest fragrance from the brand is Montblanc Explorer Platinum, a modern woody-amber fragrance for him built around a refreshing clary sage note. Violet leaf adds a hint of green while the cedarwood is smooth and masculine.

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