The Rocher de la Tournette (or, simply, 'La Tournette') is a prominent rocky point on the icy summit 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 ...

between the Petite Bosse and the summit. The highest point lies at above sea level, and can be most easily reached on an ascent of Mont Blanc via the

Goûter Route The Goûter Route (also known as the Voie Des Cristalliers and Voie Royale) is one of the two normal mountaineering routes used to reach the summit of Mont Blanc in the Alps, ascending to a height of . The route lies on the north side of the mo ...

. Whilst not sufficiently isolated from other summits to be regarded by the

UIAA The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, commonly known by its French name Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA, lit. ''International Union of Alpine Clubs''), was founded in August 1932 in Chamonix, France ...

as one of the 82 primary 4000 metre summits of the Alps, the organisation does nevertheless include Rocher de la Tournette on its 'Enlarged list of lesser summits'. This list defines a further 46 such points of secondary mountaineering or morphological interest, of which the Rocher de la Tournette is the highest. The shoulder of this rocky subsidiary summit offers a remote mountaineering route from the Quintino Sella Hut. Known as the Tournette Spur (fr: ''l’éperon de la Tournette''), it enables the final 'Bosses Ridge' section of the Goûter Route to be reached from the Italian side of Mont Blanc. This infrequently climbed route is nowadays graded AD on the adjectival climbing scale and was first climbed on 2 July 1872 by T Kennedy, J Carrel and J Fischer. The first winter ascent of the Tournette Spur was made by the three Sella brothers and their guides, including

Emile Rey Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *''Emil and the Detective ...

on 5 January 1888.

Air crash site

The

Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its press ...

''Malabar Princess'' (

Air India Flight 245 Air India Flight 245 was a scheduled Air India passenger flight that crashed into Mont Blanc, France on the morning of 3 November 1950. The plane operating the flight was a Lockheed L-749A Constellation named ''Malabar Princess'', registered ...

) crashed near the Rocher de la Tournette on November 3, 1950, killing all 48 passengers and crew members, a tragedy which inspired the 1952 novel ''

La Neige en deuil LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...

'' (''The Snow in mourning'') by

Henri Troyat Henri Troyat (born Lev Aslanovich Tarasov; – 2 March 2007) was a Russian-born French author, biographer, historian and novelist. Early life Lev Aslanovich Tarasov (russian: link=no, Лев Асланович Тарасов, ''Lev Aslanovich ...

, ( adapted to the cinema in 1956), as well as the movie ''

Malabar Princess ''Malabar Princess'' is a 2004 in film, 2004 Cinema of France, French film directed by Gilles Legrand. The film is about a young boy called Tom, who is sent to live with his grandfather in the French Alps after his mother disappeared during an exc ...

'' in 2004. A second accident occurred on 24 January 1966, involving

Air India Flight 101 Air India Flight 101 was a scheduled Air India passenger flight from Bombay to London. On the morning of 24 January 1966 at 8:02 CET, the aircraft operating the flight accidentally flew into Mont Blanc in France. The accident was caused by a mi ...

, a

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...

which struck the outcrop in the same sector, resulting in the deaths of all 117 passengers and crew members. In 2013, this crash inspired a novel by

Marc Levy Marc Levy (born 16 October 1961) is a French novelist. Career Levy was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, and studied management and computers at Paris Dauphine University. In the late 1990s, Levy wrote a story that his sister, th ...

, ''

Un sentiment plus fort que la peur The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

'' (''A feeling stronger than fear'', English translation 2013, also under the title ''Stronger than Fear'').

References

{{reflist Mountains of the Alps Mont Blanc

Air crash site

See also

References