Every two years, the charteredland surveyors of the FrenchDépartment of Haute-Savoieand Leica Geosystems measurethe elevation of Mont Blanc,the roof of Europe, the famousmountain straddling theFranco-Italian border.

The aims of these technical and human expeditions are to providethe general public with an unus-ual insight into the profession ofthe chartered land surveyor, totest the reliability and precisionof Leica Geosystems GPS equip-ment in difficult conditions, andto contribute to helping the sci-entific community provide ans-wers to questions concerningvariations in climate. Measuringthe summit of Mont Blanc on aregular basis provides glaciolo-gists, geographers, nivologists(snow experts) and meteorolo-gists with data on the variationsof a glacier at its source.With GPS measurements takenat the summit under the super-vision of Farouk Kadded, Product

Manager at Leica GeosystemsFrance, it is possible to deter-mine the elevation and to createa 3D model of the ice sheet.The 5th measurement expeditionto this superb experimentationsite confirmed the reliability androbustness of the LeicaSmartRover real time GPS, whichprovided measurements to with-in one centimeter under unusu-ally difficult circumstances (alti-tude, cold, precise calculationwith a large altitude difference,etc). The team was hardly sur-prised, since this was the 4thLeica Geosystems instrument tobe subjected to such extremeconditions, following in the foot-steps of the Leica GPS500 in2001 and 2003, the LeicaGPS1200 in 2005, and the LeicaSmartStation in 2007.

Farouk Kadded’s log bookThe team consisted of sevenchartered land surveyors, repre-sentatives of their professionalorganization; three elected rep-resentatives of the region; and

Challenge- Working with GNSS in difficult conditions- Transportation of the equipment to

the summit without any assistance- Calculation of a baseline with a delta

height of 4’000m

TimeframeSeptember 2009

ObjectivesDetermination of the elevation ofMont Blanc using all methods (RTK, NRTK,post-processing for at least 1 hour)

LocationMont Blanc, France

Leica Geosystems TruStoryMeasuring Mont Blanc: a human and technical adventure

two cameramen. Leica Geosys-tems France was represented bythe Product Manager FaroukKadded and the After-SalesTechnician Olivier Mauger.Bernhard Richter, Director ofGPS/GNSS, and Leica System1200 Product Manager AlastairGreen, travelled from the LeicaGeosystems head office in Heer-brugg to join the team.

Saturday 12th September 2009Everybody made the climb by the

usual route except my colleaguesfrom Heerbrugg and myself. Wemade for the summit via theAiguille du midi and the Refugedes Cosmiques before crossingthe three Mont Blancs (MontBlanc du Tacul, Mont Maudit,and Mont Blanc itself). So on Saturday, the rest of thegroup climbed to the Goûter re-fuge while we went via theCosmiques refuge, followed bythe ascent to the summit ofMont Blanc du Tacul (4248m). I will use the “Goûter team” torefer to the team members whoclimbed via the refuge of thesame name and the “Cosmiquesteam” for those of us who tookthe second route.Regretfully Olivier injured his calf,so he stayed behind at the TêteRousse refuge (below the Goûterrefuge). I feel sorry for him andhope he will be able to join us intwo years time for the 10th an-niversary of the Mont Blanc mea-surement expedition.Everyone arrived safely at the re-fuge and 5 cm of snow fell duringthe evening to cover our trackswith a pristine blanket of white.The mountain certainly knowshow to dress for the occasion.

Sunday 13th September 2009The night was relatively short.Our Cosmiques team was up at00:45 and on our way at 02:00while the Goûter team woke at02:00 to leave at 03:30.With our helmet lamps lightingthe way, we proceeded throughthe clear and frosty night carry-ing the three Leica SmartRoverGPS to the summit (1 for us and

2 for the Goûter team).06:45 – The first roped partiesof the Goûter team arrive at thesummit.07:25 – It’s our turn to arrive!The route via the Cosmiques re-fuge is longer and more calleng-ing which makes it more inter-esting. Moreover, as we will begoing down via the Goûter re-fuge, we will have crossed MontBlanc in its entirety, making a little dream come true for mySwiss colleagues.At the top, the temperature is abone-chilling -20°C and with thewind gusting up to 60km/h andthe swirling snow whipping inour faces, the perceived temper-ature is about -40°C: a friendlygreeting from the mountain. Weare standing above the cloudswhich open up from time to timeto give a brief glimpse of theland below, but the wind-chillfactor makes it intensely coldand very uncomfortable: we allgo into survival mode. One ofthe surveyors suffers frostbite infour fingers and is airlifted outby helicopter from the Goûterrefuge.Our GPS systems are workingperfectly. With only one internalGEB211 battery in the aerial andanother in the RX1250 controlunit, we spend 1 hour 16 min-utes standing still taking thenecessary measurements.While we are determining theelevation, we use another GPSto measure the ice sheet over a period of 52 minutes.The 2 cameramen film their reports and interview the teammembers. We succeed in con-

Leica Geosystems AGHeinrich-Wild-Strasse CH-9435 Heerbrugg Switzerland Phone +41 71 727 31 31

www.leica-geosystems.com

tacting the helicopter pilot sothat he can fly over the summitand take some aerial views ofthe measurement operation.

09:10 – Everything is finished,we start our descent.Two hours later, we all arrive atthe Goûter refuge 1000m downthe mountain, having climbeddown the famous L’arrête desBosses. After a further twohours, we arrive at the TêteRousse refuge following thedescent of the infamous Couloirdu Goûter before continuing foranother 2 hours to reach thelittle rack railway.A welcome committee is waitingfor us to celebrate the event.

We travel back and enjoy anofficial dinner and reception.After speeches and thank you’sit’s finally time for bed. Somedays it seems we life a fuller lifethan others!