Surveyors have just unveiled the new rating of the Alpine giant after an expedition of 22 people recalculated its height between 15 and 16 September 2023. The Roof of Europe lost another 2.22 metres. In 2023, it measures 4,805.59 meters while two years earlier it was at 4,807.81 meters.
This value revealed on Thursday, October 5 is not really a surprise. In a little more than 20 years of measurements carried out by the expert surveyors of Haute-Savoie, the summit of Mont Blanc is regularly erased by a few centimetres of ice.
The value history goes back to 2001. Every two years in mid-September, the highest peak in the Alps is examined with an instrument accuracy of 2 to 5 centimetres. Since 2007 and its 4,810.90 meters, the curve has been formal.
The summit of Mont Blanc is losing altitude after survey. The variations recorded are due to summer precipitation but above all to the wind that blows at this altitude. It sculpts the top to the point of planing it a little more and even moving it.
Below these so-called eternal snows, the altitude of the rocky summit is unchanged or almost unchanged. The bare granite would thus rise to an altitude of 4,792 metres if its blanket of snow and ice were removed. With geological movements, it would gain 1 millimeter per year.
Le Dauphiné
