Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion.
- Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination
Restored footage from 1899 of climbers descending the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) located on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif, in the French Alps. The footage originally from the Lumiere Archives.
The Mer de Glace glacier lies above the Chamonix valley in the French Alps. It is spectacular and well worth a climb, for those inclined. I’ve climbed to this side of Mont Blanc . It is 7.5 km long and 200 metres (660 ft) deep but, when all its tributary glaciers are taken into account, it can be regarded as the longest and largest glacier in France, and the second longest in the Alps after the Aletsch Glacier.
In literature it was made famous by Mary Shelley who had Dr Frankenstein meet his creation twice whilst mountaineering on the Mer de Glace.