When career alpinist Christophe Profit removed safety equipment from Mont Blanc last summer, he called it a “political” act.
But according to a Monday verdict from a French court, it was also a criminal one.
The Bonneville Criminal Court found Profit guilty of removing and “stealing” steel rods installed on the mountain, 4sport.ua reported. Profit must pay 600 euros for removing the stakes, which were added to help climbers safely pass the mountain’s new crevasses along the standard summit route.
Profit, one of France’s most famous mountaineers, claimed to have ethics on his side, arguing that the stakes only encourage novice climbers to attempt routes beyond their ability.
For that reason, Profit maintained transparency, even emailing the mayor of Saint-Gervais, Jean-Marc Peillex, to claim responsibility. (Profit seems comfortable airing his opinions, like the Instagram post below, in which he shares his feelings about GPS.)
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Honesty or presumptuousness?
But Profit’s honesty didn’t stop the mayor of Mont Blanc’s nearest town from lambasting the climber for his presumptuousness.
“Security is essential, especially when there are more and more people in nature,” Mayor Jean-Marc Peillex said in a statement. “Me, I did my job, I did what the guides asked of me [by ordering the stakes placed] and it is not because we secure a place with a crevasse 16 meters high that we increase attendance. We are improving security.”
It’s just the latest conflict in one of climbing’s oldest debates: How do we manage mountains, especially as they become more popular? As climate change and other forces reshape our environment, balancing the desires of pros and novices will only become more complicated.
But as far as the French courts are concerned, the answer isn’t a single climber making a unilateral decision for everyone else, no matter how impressive his resumé.
