Mont Brouillard (4,069 m) is a mountain in the
Mont Blanc massif
The Mont Blanc massif (french: Massif du Mont-Blanc; it, Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major indepen ...
in the
Val d'Aosta
, Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title = Official languages
, population_blank1 = Italian French
...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, being a satellite peak on the south ridge of
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc (french: Mont Blanc ; it, Monte Bianco , both meaning "white mountain") is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe, rising above sea level. It is the second-most prominent mountain in Europe, after Mount Elbrus, and i ...
.
[Dumler, Helmut and Burkhardt, Willi P., ''The High Mountains of the Alps'', London: Diadem, 1993, p. 197]
Toponym
Though in
French this name means "mountain of mist", this toponym comes from
Valdôtain Francoprovençal patois. According to Aostan botanist and scientist
Joseph-Marie Henry,
[''Eau, acqua, éve - entre littérature, science et histoire'', éd. Duc, Saint-Christophe, p. 96.] the word ''Broillà'' means "made of ''breuils''", ''Breuil'' meaning alpine marshy berm, as for
Breuil in
Valtournenche
Valtournenche (local Valdôtain: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy, above the sea level. It is named after and covers most of the ''Valtournenche'', a valley on the left side of the Dora Baltea, from C ...
.
Ascent
![Brouillard ridge with labels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Brouillard_ridge_with_labels.jpg)
The question of who made the first ascent of the peak was for a time a matter of contention. Martino Baretti and his guide Jean-Joseph Maquignaz believed that they had climbed the peak, together with
Punta Baretti, on 28 July 1880, but
Karl Blodig
Karl Blodig (16 October 1859 – 7 September 1956) was an Austrian Mountaineering, mountaineer, optician, and writer. Blodig was the first to successfully climb List of Alpine four-thousanders, all Alpine peaks of over 4000 meters, completing his ...
showed that this was unlikely, no cairn being found when he made his ascent on 10 July 1906 with
Oscar Eckenstein
Oscar Johannes Ludwig Eckenstein (9 September 1859 – 8 April 1921) was an English rock climbing, rock climber and mountaineering, mountaineer, and a pioneer in the sport of bouldering. Inventor of the modern crampon, he was an innovator in cl ...
and Alexis Brocherel.
[Dumler, Helmut and Burkhardt, Willi P., op. cit., p. 198] Later research showed that the time that Baretti gave for the traverse between Punta Baretti and Mont Brouillard was "half that required".
[
The Brouillard ridge to the summit of Mont Blanc does not cross Mont Brouillard, being separated from the peak by the Col Emile Rey.][ ]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brouillard
Alpine four-thousanders
Mountains of Aosta Valley
Mountains of the Alps
Mont Blanc massif