What popularized mountain climbing?

Mountaineers of today owe a good deal to a Swiss scientist called Horace Benedict de Saussure, who was born at Conches, near Geneva, in 1740. He changed the general attitude to mountains from one of superstition and dread to one of inspiration. De Saussure was professor of physics and philosophy at the University of Geneva and a pioneer of geology, mineralogy and meteorology, plant anatomy and alpine botany.

He was the first traveler to reach the summit of Mont Blanc (1787) and to measure its height by barometric pressure.