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Mont Blanc mayor angered by 'ad hoc alpinists' who treat Europe's highest peak like 'amusement park'
Polish climber who demands to be airlifted off Mont Blanc because he did not
want to walk back down invokes the wrath of locals who warn the perilous
mountain is no "amusement park".
Saint Gervais mayor, Jean-Marc Peillex Photo: GETTY IMAGES
By
Henry Samuel , Paris
3:43PM BST 12 Jul 2014
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montblanc
In a long-gone era of climbing, it was the Everest of its time. Mont Blanc,
the highest mountain in the Alps, was deemed so tough that when two men
first reached its summit in 1786, it marked the birth of modern
mountaineering.
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More than two centuries on, the 15,000ft "Roof of Europe" is dwarfed
by challenges in the Himalayas &ndash; yet, as recent events show, it can still be
a perilous place even for experienced mountaineers.
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Nowadays, some 25,000 people attempt to scale Europe's tallest mountain every
year &ndash; and their sometimes breathtaking amateurism is stoking anger among
the local French community.
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The matter came to an explosive head last week when it emerged that French
officials had refused to airlift a Polish climber off Mont Blanc after he
rang mountain rescue from the Refuge du Go&ucirc;ter at 12,500ft &ndash; the last stop
before the summit &ndash; saying that he did not want to walk back "on
his own steam".
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"He didn't feel able to go back down to T&ecirc;te Rousse refuge on foot
because he was scared," said Patrice Ribes of the Chamonix high
mountain gendarmerie unit. "A guide happened to be nearby and offered
to help him get down, but he refused and demanded that we come and rescue
him by helicopter immediately."
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However, as he was "neither injured nor in distress, we told him we
couldn't come and get him, that he should recover and go back down on his
means".
Exasperated, the unnamed Pole, who lives in Aberdeen, decided to charter a
private helicopter to pick him up.
That only further angered Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of nearby
Saint-Gervais, who promptly denied the climber permission to fly over his
village. "Is the PGHM (mountain rescue squad) going to have to get a
taxi licence?" asked Mr Peillex. "The demands of these 'ad hoc
alpinists' reflects the urban consumer's state of mind, which demands
security and service at all times. But the ascension of Mont Blanc is a
matter for mountaineers in a natural setting that dictates its own laws. It
is not an amusement park."
At first the Polish climber refused to budge, "squatting" in the
Go&ucirc;ter hut &ndash; a futuristic, four-storey, egg-shaped structure, part of which
juts out spectacularly from the cliff. With a capacity of 120, the refuge
was hailed as a marvel of self-sustainability when it opened last year.
After 48 hours in the shelter, the Pole eventually threw in the towel, paying
for a guide to help him retrace his steps down to the valley below. Just a
few days ago, another two Poles, also living in Britain, ignored warnings of
bad weather to attempt an ascent, only to call mountain rescue for help
after losing their way between the Go&ucirc;ter and Vallot refuges. Again, the
PGHM refused to fly up a helicopter because of the conditions, telling them
to make their way to one of the huts without waiting for rescuers to arrive. "These
people just didn't understand why we couldn't come and get them in heavy
snow," said Mr Ribes, whose group rescues around 1,000 climbers from
the Mont Blanc massif each year.
Climbers on the Mont Blanc (ALAMY)
There are occasions when the rescuers have no choice but to step in. Last
month, one climber was within a few hundred yards of the summit but was
forced to call in rescue services because someone had stolen his walking
boots.
"When we find people in that situation, we extract them by helicopter. We
don't leave them in their socks. It's pretty dangerous," explained
Jean-Baptiste Estachy, the mountain rescue chief.
But in other cases, climbers are wrong to think they can snap their fingers
and receive assistance, said Saint-Gervais's mayor.
A couple of years ago, Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin tycoon, attempted to
scale Mont Blanc with Princess Beatrice, two of his children and six friends
to launch a charitable trust. When they reached the old Go&ucirc;ter refuge, they
had not booked enough places for the whole group, according to Mr Peillex.
So they demanded to be housed in the new refuge which was still under
construction.
"Naturally we refused," said the mayor. "If Mr Branson wants to
fly to the moon, then so be it, but when he climbs Mont Blanc from Saint
Gervais, I'm the mayor, not him."
Eventually, Mr Branson reached the summit, descended part of its Italian slope
and got a helicopter to ferry him down.
The official irritation can be partly explained by the dizzying numbers of
people attempting to scale the summit. Some 350 to 400 climbing parties
attempt the ascent every day in summer, according to a brochure in nearby
Chamonix called No, climbing Mont Blanc is not easy. Rescuers, according to
the leaflet, are called in between 80 and 100 times each year, sometimes
several times a day.
Locals complain that media and "hiking lobbies" are to blame for
peddling the illusion that Mont Blanc is just a "long walk" to the
summit.
They say such disinformation leads to tragedies such as one last year, when
Peter Saunders, 48, a Briton, and his 12-year-old son Charlie plunged to
their deaths after trekking along a precipitous, snow and ice-covered path
wearing only flimsy summer hiking boots.
They fell 1,000ft after slipping on the treacherous trail overlooking the vast
Bossons Glacier, near Chamonix.
To forewarn climbers around the world, an organisation called the Petzl
Foundation has created a guide called Reaching the Top of Mont Blanc, A
Concern for Climbers , in seven languages.
It warns of the perils along the most popular Couloir du Go&ucirc;ter route, also
known as the Couloir de la Mort (death gully), where 74 fatalities were
recorded between 1991 and 2011. During the most critical hours, between 11am
and 1.30pm, rock falls occur on average every 17 minutes along the 100-yard
stretch.
It advises newcomers to check their fitness levels, acclimatise, train
beforehand and take a guide. "Freedom," it concludes, "is
giving yourself the chance to try again."

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