The New York Times International - 13.08.2019

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16 | T UESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

travel

The Goûter Refuge — a futuristic struc-

ture that clings to a cliff at 12,516 feet —

is, for many people, the final stop en

route to the top of Mont Blanc, the high-

est mountain in Western Europe, strad-

dling the border between France and It-

aly.

Every summer at least 20,000 people

attempt the 15,776-foot summit. The ma-

jority spend a night in the Goûter Ref-

uge, on the French side, which wel-

comes climbers from late May through

September. Local officials and guides

say the number is growing, and that to-

day’s climbers are less experienced,

even as warmer temperatures are in-

creasing the risk of rockfall and trans-

forming once-snowy ridges into treach-

erous sheets of ice. A small number of

climbers also appear to be unwilling to

respect the rules — or even to pay for

their accommodation.

“People would say, ‘You have to let us

stay for free. We don’t have to pay be-

cause you’re a mountain hut,’ ” said An-

toine Rattin, 46, a guide and the man-

ager of Goûter Refuge, recalling a few

encounters last summer.

In the high, wild landscape around the

Refuge, turning people out for the night

could mean death, so Mr. Rattin had no

choice but to abide their presence —

even if that meant accepting their refus-

al to pay the €65.80 (about $74) fee for a

bed, and exceeding the hut’s official ca-

pacity of 120 people.

Mr. Rattin’s challenges are emblemat-

ic of the mountain’s more fundamental

problem, a challenge that is also afflict-

ing Mount Everest: overcrowding,

which is exacerbating the dangers

posed by climate change and inexperi-

enced climbers. This summer, local au-

thorities are tackling these issues, and

their efforts are leading to some

changes for visitors.

A POWERFUL DRAW

For more than 200 years, Mont Blanc

has been luring climbers. The first to

reach the mountain’s white, windblown

summit were Jacques Balmat, a hunter

and crystal collector, and Gabriel-Mi-

chel Paccard, a doctor and botanist. The

two men, both locals, made it to the top

early on the evening of Aug. 8, 1786, a

moment that many have cited as the

birth of modern mountaineering.

Over the next few decades, a small but

growing number of mountaineers and

explorer-scientists followed in their

footsteps. As Mont Blanc grew in fame,

so, too, did the valley below. Hotels

sprang up in Chamonix, the village at

the mountain’s base. By the end of the

19th century, tourism was driving the

economy.

Today, the narrow Chamonix valley

attracts 4.3 million visitors a year. Peo-

ple come in winter to ski and snowshoe,

in summer to rock climb, hike and

mountain bike, or at any time of year

just to wander through town and admire

the views of the jagged, ice-crusted

peaks. But for many visitors, getting to

the top of Mont Blanc is the most power-

ful draw.

“Clients tend to be obsessed with this

mountain, and every experienced

mountaineer wants to climb it as well,”

said Blaise Agresti, an independent

mountain guide and the former head of

the PGHM of Chamonix, the security

and rescue service that responds to

emergencies on Mont Blanc and the sur-

rounding peaks. “Today, many people

who come to the mountain go up, come

back down and then never go back for

the rest of their lives,” he said. “We’ve

been marketing Mont Blanc for two cen-

turies. We’ve sold it as this beautiful,

symbolic dream. So today, this is the sit-

uation we inherit.”

ROUTES AND HAZARDS

But the dream comes with its own set of

dangers. More than half a dozen routes

lead to Mont Blanc’s summit, but just

two — the Three Mountains Route,

which starts from Chamonix, and the

Normal Route, which starts from the

neighboring community of St.-Gervais

— are accessible to climbers with only a

moderate amount of experience. While

the majority return from the summit un-

scathed, both itineraries entail risk.

The Normal Route — chosen by about

three quarters of the climbers aiming

for the summit — goes across the Grand

Couloir, a steep, narrow gully that acts

as a sort of bowling alley for falling

rocks. Near the top, the path leads onto a

narrow ridge of snow and ice, about 100

yards long and just a couple of feet wide,

that’s flanked by steep drops. If you

stumble there, you can fall to your

death.

Alternatively, the Three Mountains

Route, a more technical itinerary that

accounts for most of the remaining

quarter of climbers, goes below a series

of towering ice cliffs that occasionally —

and very unpredictably — slough off

enormous quantities of snow and ice

onto the path below. Both routes are

threatened with avalanches, and both

cross glaciers laced with crevasses:

yawning gaps in the ice that can swallow

climbers whole.

“I did it once but I would never, ever

do it again,” said Rachel McKee, 41, an

Irishwoman living in France who

climbed Mont Blanc six years ago. She

was completely exhausted by the climb,

despite her thorough training, and she

had to sprint across the Grand Couloir

as rocks fell around her. “It was a fantas-

tic experience, but you’re playing with

death,” she said.

An analysis of accidents along the

lower portion of the Normal Route found

that, between 1990 and 2017, 102 people

had died between the Tête Rousse Hut

and the Goûter Hut, a stretch that takes

most people about three hours to hike.

The biggest causes of death were falls,

being hit by a falling rock, and “strand-

ing” — getting lost or caught in bad

weather. Of the 387 accident victims who

needed emergency services, 84 percent

were amateurs unaccompanied by a

professional guide.

“If you add up the accidents on the

two itineraries, you find that half of all

mountaineering accidents in France

happen on Mont Blanc,” Mr. Agresti

wrote in a book on mountain rescue.

More than half of those accidents occur

on the climb to the Goûter Hut, a stretch

of trail that Mr. Agresti called “one of the

black spots in the Alps.”

To reduce their risk, guides say, climb-

ers need specific skills: In addition to

being fit enough to endure hours of

tough hiking at high altitudes, Mont

Blanc aspirants should also be confident

walking in crampons. (A number of fatal

falls have resulted from people tripping

while wearing their just-purchased

crampons.) They should also know how

to walk roped together with other climb-

ers; how to get out of a crevasse; how to

interpret a mountain weather forecast;

and how to gauge snow and rock condi-

tions.

Anyone short on these skills should

hire a professional guide; the Compa-

gnie des Guides de Chamonix, the offi-

cial association of Chamonix’s profes-

sional mountain guides, is a good place

to start. Visitors will pay between €

and €1,500 for a guided trip for two peo-

ple to the summit, in addition to the cost

of gear, hut accommodation and a ride in

the train or cable car to the start of the

route.

CRUMBLING MOUNTAINS

As warmer temperatures take their toll

on the Alpine environment, some of the

dangers are growing more serious. The

average temperature in Chamonix rose

by more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit

over the course of the 20th century

(more than double the global rate), said

Ludovic Ravanel, a geomorphologist

with France’s National Center for Scien-

tific Research and a specialist in the evo-

lution of alpine environments.

“Everybody’s talking about how the

glaciers are retreating, but other things

are happening that are less well known,”

Mr. Ravanel said. The last few decades

have seen an “explosion” in the number

of rocky landslides in the peaks around

Mont Blanc, he explained, as warmer

temperatures have begun to melt the

permafrost that has long cemented the

mountains together.

The warming of the mountains has af-

fected — and in some cases obliterated

— nearly all of the most popular moun-

taineering routes in the Mont Blanc

area, said Mr. Ravanel, who is also a

qualified high-mountain guide. The

Three Mountains Route has become

steeper and icier, while rockfall in the

Grand Couloir on the Normal Route is

becoming more frequent and volumi-

nous, especially in the afternoon. The

Petzl Foundation once proposed build-

ing a small tunnel to protect people

crossing the gully, but the suggestion

was opposed by many guides and local

authorities. This is a wild landscape, not

an amusement park, opponents said.

Signs have been erected along the route

to warn people of the risk, but many still

choose to cross the gully at the most

dangerous time of day.

“What we’re seeing is that the peak

time for rockfall is also the peak time for

people crossing the couloir,” Mr. Ra-

vanel said. “We have these two factors

that overlap. We have to try to separate

them.”

NEW CONTROLS

But it’s not always easy to convince

climbers, many of them go-it-alone ama-

teurs with little knowledge of the routes,

about protecting themselves.

“Today, we have passed from a gener-

ation of mountaineers to a generation of

tourists who come for one shot, just to

take a selfie on the top of Mont Blanc,”

said Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of St.-

Gervais.

For more than a decade, Mr. Peillex

has been arguing for stricter controls.

And following the summer of 2018 —

when French media published a string

of articles describing overcrowding, lit-

ter, fist fights and other bad behavior on

Mont Blanc — he has achieved his goal.

Starting with the 2019 climbing sea-

son, which opened on May 24, anyone

hiking the Normal Route must carry

identification and proof of a reservation

in one of the huts. There has also been a

crackdown on free camping. Scores of

tents used to cluster outside the Goûter

Refuge during the summer, and Mr.

Peillex said that people would leave be-

hind trash and feces. But no longer:

climbers caught setting up their own

tents could now face a fine of €300,

and two years in prison.

Yet another restriction was recently

introduced after a hot day in June, when

about 150 paraglider pilots rode power-

ful thermal winds to the top of Mont

Blanc. A prohibition on landing on the

summit was announced the following

d a y.

The new controls have stopped short,

however, of requiring a climbing permit

or otherwise attempting to impose a lim-

it on the number of people on Mont

Blanc.

But the new measures, which were

announced in April by the prefecture of

Haute Savoie, are meant to restore re-

spect for the mountain, while also ensur-

ing a safe and smooth flow of climbers.

The rules are enforced by PGHM offi-

cers and security officials from St.-Ger-

vais, who patrol the Normal Route

around the clock. Still, some have ques-

tioned just how much of an impact the

new controls will have.

David Ravanel, the president of the

Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix,

said he hoped the measures would im-

prove people’s experience. “But I don’t

think they will decrease the risk of acci-

dents, because they still won’t prevent

complete amateurs from climbing the

mountain. That’s the biggest challenge

we have today.”

Mr. Peillex acknowledged that the

new measures alone are not enough; a

shift in the public’s attitude is needed, he

said. So he has begun a public informa-

tion campaign, in the hope of raising

awareness among climbers before they

even arrive.

“The point is to make people under-

stand that climbing Mont Blanc isn’t like

going out to the movies,” Mr. Peillex said

at the news conference in which the new

measures were announced.

The 2019 climbing season is well un-

derway, and Mr. Rattin is back at his

perch at the Goûter Refuge. “Things are

better. We’ve managed to find some

peace,” he said by phone, noting that so

far no one had arrived without a reser-

vation and that the enforcement officers

seemed to be effective. “So far, so good,”

he said, “but the season isn’t over yet.”

Danger on Western Europe’s highest peak

Changes address the risks

caused by climate change

and crowds on Mont Blanc

BY PAIGE MCCLANAHAN

Left and below, climbers on Mont Blanc. Every summer at least 20,000 people attempt

the 15,776-foot summit. Many spend a night in the Goûter Refuge, above.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICOLAS BLANDIN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE NEW YORK TIMES

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