Sunset on the Mont Blanc 1873

Leslie Stephen father of Virginia Woolf reached the peak of Mont Blanc in 1873 to admire the sunset, and wrote in his book The playground of Europe :

“The snow at our feet was glowing with rich light, and the shadows in our footsteps a vivid green by the contrast. Beneath us was a vast horizontal floor of thin level mists suspended in mid-air, spread like a canopy over the whole boundless landscape, and tinged with every hue of sunset. Above us rose the solemn mass of Mont Blanc in the richest glow of an Alpine sunset. The sense of lonely sublimity was almost oppressive”

He had reached the top with a long tweed coat; his daughter Virginia recalled in various occasions how much his dad loved to wear it around the streets of London, proud of the yellow marks left on it from the ropes.

Before becoming the Mont Blanc, the name of the mountain went through various paths.
The first known name is Rupes Alba (approximately 1091), Says o Scez Blans (1319), Mont Sainct Bernard (1532), Glaciales Montes (1581), Mont Malay, Mont Malet or Montagne Maudite (1606-1743), other then La Glacière, Les Glacières or Les Glassières (1741-43). It appeares as Mont Maudite, on a map printed in Geneva in 1606 curated by Jac Goulartius Genevensi. Moreover the name Le Mont Blanc is firstly seen on a map published in London in 1744 and the previous toponym Mont Maudite given to another near by peak.