LYON – A mayor within the French Alps notorious for battling mass tourism on the Mont Blanc has attain under fire for submitting a staunch criticism against two other folks tenting on the mountain’s height.

Jean-Marc Peillex, mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, has for years sounded the dread against overcrowding on western Europe’s perfect height, which is climbed every three hundred and sixty five days by up to twenty,000 other folks.

He once called hikers braving the harmful climb without enough preparation “wackos”.

He filed a criticism with police against two climbers who closing autumn posted a video of the camp they place up at an altitude of 4,807 metres, defying a 2020 ban on such bivouacs issued to guard the fragile mountaintop.

“Upright mountain mountain climbing requires humility and discretion,” the mayor stated in an announcement on the time of the criticism.

“The Mont Blanc has had ample of these these that are procuring for social recognition, and who’re capable of the relaxation gorgeous to display hide they exist,” the observation learn.

Nevertheless sector mavens stated that the activist mayor had, this time, gone too a ways.

– ‘Lashing out’ –

The SIM mountain mountain climbing affiliation accused him of “a protracted-standing escalation” in his wrestle with hikers.

In an online petition, SIM accused Peillex of “lashing out at every little thing and all people, without discernment, restraint or coherence”.

Unesco France’s alpine committee also questioned the mayor’s stance. “It’s major to surprise what environmental impact a solitary camp on the Mont Blanc at present of three hundred and sixty five days would maybe be ready to have,” it stated.

On Monday, the mayor looked undaunted.

“These other folks atomize me unwell,” he stated of his critics, telling AFP: “They must be the ones denouncing this scandal, as a substitute they protect the industry of mountain mountain climbing.”

The two climbers within the period in-between told online journal Alpine Magazine that they have been “bowled over” by the dependable action, pronouncing they’d been “respectful of the atmosphere and the other folks round us”.

Contacted by AFP, native prosecutors did not dispute whether or not they would apply up on the dependable criticism, which in concept might lead to a sexy of up to 150,000 euros ($160,000) and up to three years in jail.