• Emmanuel Macron is going to the Mont-Blanc massif this Thursday to announce a series of measures to protect the highest peak in Europe.
  • Numerous incivilities have been committed by mountaineers in recent months.
  • Jean-Marc Peillex, mayor of Saint-Gervais, has campaigned for years for the protection of this unique natural space. He answers questions from 20 Minutes .

Emmanuel Macron will travel Thursday to the bedside of the Mont-Blanc massif. The head of state must announce a series of measures to preserve Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Western Europe, and fight against the many incivilities committed by tourists. On the eve of this trip, Jean-Marc Peillex, mayor of Saint-Gervais and fervent defender of Mont-Blanc for almost 20 years, confided in 20 Minutes .

How do you welcome the arrival of Emmanuel Macron? Do you see this as an announcement effect or do you think that politicians have finally tackled the problem?

I personally contacted the President of the Republic on this issue. If he comes to see me and he decided to go to Saint-Gervais, it is certainly not an announcement effect. If I have in front of me a president who says to me "Hello, I understood you", that will not do it.

Afterwards, we have been working for several weeks with mountain stakeholders, with Mmes Borne [Minister for the Ecological Transition] and Wargon [Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological Transition], who were entrusted by the President with this file there, to come up with solutions. Emmanuel Macron will come to present to us the synthesis of all of these reflections to then propose measures. Today, I am not confident, I am downright happy because it is the only political leader since 2003 who has taken this problem seriously and who will provide solutions.

Of course, this is not going to be miraculous and there will always be dissatisfied people but there is a real desire on the part of the President and his government to change things. I would even go further: there is a real desire for France to become the leader of a new policy for the preservation of overcrowded sites, whether natural or urban.

For you, what would be the most urgent measures to put in place in order to preserve the Mont-Blanc massif as much as possible?

The difficulty is that if we start to enumerate the rantings of each other (the installation of rowers at the top, the landing of planes etc.), we will make a list which will be endless. And there will always be someone, ready to invent something new or original, which has not been foreseen by a text. The idea, and that's what I proposed, is to think positively: what is this site for? To do opera or advertise cream desserts? Isn't it better to give it back its original vocations, namely mountaineering and skiing? If the President of the Republic validates this way of thinking, we will have won. We will have respected the freedom to climb Mont-Blanc, to ski it down in winter while prohibiting all other forms of disrespect or commercial use.

Should the preservation of summits go through the supervision of the number of skiers or mountaineers?

Last year with the prefect, we renewed the compulsory reservation, which is now nominative. It is a regulatory measure. When the number of refuge places is reached, you do not climb. And whoever wants to go back and forth during the day is not affected by this. It is therefore not a limitation in number because you should know that between June 15 and September 15, between 20,000 and 30,000 people attempt the ascent of Mont-Blanc, namely between 200 to 300 each day. This seems little compared to 50,000 or 100,000 visitors a day to Chamonix, but for a natural site, this is already enough.

The problem does not come from the number: we now have a clientele of urban tourists, who challenge themselves, for example on January 1, to do Mont-Blanc in July. But Mont-Blanc, we do it when we are ready, when it is ready, when the security and weather conditions are there. Otherwise, no. We don't do Mont-Blanc because we decided to block a day on our agenda.

You have already denounced on several occasions the incivility and filth of tourists? Is this an important lever for action to further preserve the summits?

Of course. Indeed, we saw it the first time in 2003 with the heat wave, that under this beautiful white layer of snow, there is the excrement, the pee and everything that some people did not want to come down because they are tired or that it's too heavy to carry. So they bury it under the snow and tell themselves that they will never come back. That's the problem. Before, we had people who went mountaineering with a guide, who started with needles, smaller peaks and who, several years later, tackled the ascent of Mont-Blanc.

Now we have a share of tourists that we never see again. They do Mont-Blanc, and then the year after the New York marathon and Kilimanjaro then before continuing on to Everest. We are in an “I consume” mode. So the President's measures are precisely to supervise these consumers. If they are not told that it is prohibited, they allow themselves everything. We have Kilian Jornet who gets naked at the top of Mont-Blanc, we have some who come to rower or who install jacuzzis for Swiss…

Were you worried that Mont-Blanc would still suffer for several years despite the measures that will be announced?

I'll tell you a word: irremediable. Consciousness has rocked. Today, 99% of people are shocked by what is happening at the top of Mont-Blanc. We found the same situations of excess in the Louvre, Venice or Barcelona, ​​in Halong Bay or on Easter Island, which followed suit by also taking measures to regulate attendance. It is irremediable. On the other hand, the whole thing is not to go from one extreme to the other. We must avoid French reasoning which consists in saying it is all or nothing. On the contrary, let's go to Mont-Blanc but let's set the rules. When you are invited to someone's house, it is not you who will say how we behave. We don't put our feet on the table. Well there, it's the same.

Planet

A Russian mountaineer wanted to access Mont-Blanc with his 10 year old son, "pure unconsciousness"?

Did you see ?

A Briton abandons his rower on Mont-Blanc, an elected official complains about the "howlings"

Caroline Girardon