I had reached the end of my journey, I had come to a place where no one-where neither the eagle nor the chamois had ever been before me. I had got there alone, without other help than that of my own will. Everything that surrounded me seemed to be my own property. I was the King of Mont Blanc-the statue of this tremendous pedestal.
-Jacques Balmat's impressions on reaching the summit of Mont Blanc, 1786.