A group in bronze depicts the Geneva naturalist Horace Bénédict de Saussure and Jacques Balmat. In 1760, the naturalist offered a reward to the first person to reach the top of Mont Blanc. Balmat, accompanied by Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard, managed this feat in 1786. Saussure himself also climbed to the top the following year. These first ascensions triggered the great adventure of alpinism.