An area of the east face of 67,400 m² was laser-scanned, creating 22 overlapping computer images, with measurements accurate to between 3 and 5 cm. Careful computer analysis revealed that in the twelve-month period between scans, the measured area had lost 536 m³ of rock. This is comparable to an erosion rate across the entire measured area of the face of 8.4 mm per year - a figure significantly greater than those found in rock walls of high-altitude permafrost in Switzerland and Greenland. The project concluded that the higher rock fall rate exhibited on the Tour Ronde and elsewhere in the Mont Blanc massif was linked to the degradation in permafrost which would have held the mountain together more effectively, but which now exposed it to greater weathering through the freeze-thaw cycle of water, with maximum occurrence during warm summers.