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Mont Blanc summit: 10,000 euros would be available for your own rescue, and 5,000 euros for your own funeral
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JEFF PACHOUD/ AFP
The ascent to Mont Blanc is dangerous, the thaw causes falling rocks and slabs of snow again and again, crevasses open up.
Currently, the authorities even generally advise against a mountain tour on Europe's highest peak.
But some mountaineers still dare - much to the annoyance of Jean-Marc Peillex.
He is mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, from where climbers can access the mountain via the Goûter route.
Dozens of people ignored the warnings and embarked on a "game of Russian roulette," Peillex said.
Five Romanian visitors had to be turned away by the mountain police “in shorts, sneakers and straw hats”.
Continue via Italy without bail
He spoke of mountaineers who had death in their backpacks.
Peillex had enough and he decided: mountaineers who try to reach the summit from the Goûter hut must in future pay a deposit of 15,000 euros to cover the costs if they have to be rescued or even die.
10,000 euros were estimated for the rescue, for the own funeral at least 5,000 euros.
"We should factor in the cost of her rescue and burial because it is unacceptable that French taxpayers should foot the bill," Peillex said.
The recent heatwave in France and Italy has also made climbing Mont Blanc even more dangerous.
The President of the Chamonix Mountain Guides Association, Olivier Grébert, had estimated this week that only a maximum of twenty people per day would reach the 4807-meter-high summit.
Usually there are more than a hundred.
In addition to the Goûter hut, the summit can also be reached from the Italian side via the Ratti path.
According to a report by the Guardian, the mayor of the town of Courmayeur at the foot of the mountain on the Italian side, Roberto Rota, does not want to make access to Mont Blanc more difficult.
"The mountain is not property," he is quoted as saying.
"We as administrators can limit ourselves to reporting suboptimal conditions along the routes, but requiring a deposit to climb the summit is really surreal."
Just a few days ago, Noé Vérité, the hut warden of the Cosmiques hut, reported on the regular route via France of falling stones “the size of refrigerators”.
The danger of falling rocks has recently increased in large areas of the Alps, in Switzerland a woman died climbing at the weekend.
Also, for example, on the Matterhorn, mountain guides are currently warning against an ascent.
Apr/AFP
