Jean-Marc Peillex, mayor of Saint-Gervais, where the 4,807-meter (15,774-foot) ascent is located, said tourists will now have to fork out €10,000 to cover the “average cost of rescue” – which currently covered by French taxpayers. – plus 5,000 euros for “the victim’s burial expenses” if they want to hike the highest mountain in Western Europe. “Sometimes stupid people only respond to stupid ideas,” Mr Peillex told the Telegraph in a telephone interview on Thursday. He said they have the same approach as someone who wants to kill themselves, adding: “So I say let’s do things right and ask them to pay us the cost of that.” Local officials and guides warn that the number of inexperienced climbers on Mont Blanc is increasing. A series of recent heat waves has also exposed giant cracks in the mountain and triggered rockfall, making the climb to the top even more dangerous.
Novice Hikers Playing ‘Russian Roulette’
Mr Peillex said the idea for the deposit came after a series of incidents involving ill-prepared novice hikers, including a group of Romanians who tried to summit wearing shorts and tennis shoes. Mr Peillex also cited a Spanish family who brought their 10-year-old child with them on their ascent, which he described as an “assassination attempt”. “It’s like these people think they’re going to Disneyland or the London Eye,” he said. “It may sound cynical for me to compare all this to Russian roulette, but the fact is that so many people climb Mont Blanc thinking it’s a game with no real risks.”
“Surreal” asking for a deposit
The decision to impose an expensive deposit, however, did not please Mr Peillex’s Italian counterpart. Roberto Rota, mayor of the resort town of Courmayeur – located at the foot of Mont Blanc on the Italian side of the border, home to some of the lowest slopes – has rejected the French decision to charge climbers before their ascent to the summit . “The Italian side of Mont Blanc will not restrict the ascent of hikers,” Mr Rota told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. “The mountain is not property. As managers, we are limited to pointing out when the trails are not in the best condition, but asking for an advance to get to the top is truly surreal. You can decide to close a path or passage if there is a real danger.” Political leaders and local mayors across northern Italy are still reeling from the avalanche that killed 11 tourists when a mass of ice broke off a glacier on the north side of Marmolada, the highest peak in the Italian Dolomites, a month ago. The Courmayeur Council issued a short warning at the end of July for Val Ferret, a valley southeast of Mont Blanc, due to concern about the potential risk of ice breaking from the Planpincieux glacier during summer storms.
