Mayor threatens AED55k deposit to climb Mont Blanc

A French mayor wants Mount Blanc climbers to put down a £12,600 (AED55,872) deposit to cover the cost of their rescue and funeral before climbing.

It is the highest peak in Europe with a 15,771ft summit, and he proposed introducing the charge as he claims inexperienced climbers are playing with their own lives.

Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains in France, said ‘pseudo-mountaineers’ have not really understood the warnings about the dangers of Mount Blanc.

The deposit would be a fully comprehensive one, and the first €10,000 (AED37,419) would pay for the rescue of the climber and the remaining €5,000 (AED18,709) would cover their funeral costs.

The mayor said, “Sometimes silly people only respond to silly ideas. They have the same approach as someone who wants to commit suicide. So I say, let’s do things properly and ask them to pay us the costs that this will entail.”

He explained that many of the ‘pseudo-mountaineers’ come completely unprepared for the climb, with some even turning up ‘wearing shorts, trainers and straw hats.’

Peillex added that when this happens, they are turned back by the mountain police, but it is a problem all the same.

“People want to climb with death in their backpacks,” he wrote on Twitter. “So let’s anticipate the cost of having to rescue them, and for their burial, because it’s unacceptable that French taxpayers should foot the bill.”

Source: Agencies Mount Blanc climb deposit Mount Blanc climb deposit

“People want to climb with death in their backpacks,” he wrote on Twitter. “So let’s anticipate the cost of having to rescue them, and for their burial, because it’s unacceptable that French taxpayers should foot the bill.”