{"id":116676,"date":"2026-08-18T00:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/116676\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T00:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:31:09","slug":"mont-blanc-mayor-tells-stranded-climbers-to-pay-for-their-own-helicopter-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/116676\/","title":{"rendered":"Mont Blanc mayor tells stranded climbers to pay for their own helicopter rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mayor has defended his decision to charge 32 mountaineers who had to be rescued by a helicopter in the French Alps.<\/p>\n

Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais at the foot of Mont Blanc, accused the group of being \u201copportunists and dangerous people\u201d who should never have tried to ascend the mountain in the first place.<\/p>\n

It came amid repeated warnings over rockfalls caused by droughts and heatwaves, making the Go\u00fbter route up Mont Blanc dangerous. The region closed two refuges at 2pm on August 11 due to the conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But a day after, the Go\u00fbter shelter warden called to say that a large group of climbers had begun their trek before Peillex\u2019s order was widely known.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They learnt of their fate only upon their arrival at 12,582 feet (3,835 meters).<\/p>\n

Rather than use a state-funded rescue helicopter, Peillex instructed local private firm, Chamonix Mont Blanc H\u00e9licopt\u00e8res, to bring them down – but said they would have to meet the cost of \u20ac95 (\u00a381) per person.<\/p>\n

The incident sparked a row in a country where such rescue operations have long been free<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais, said: \u201cThey deliberately refused to listen to the messages, recommending that people refrain from making the ascent or take into account the reality of the rockfalls, images of which were published on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was therefore with full awareness that they climbed the Aiguille du Go\u00fbter, knowing that they would have to come back down.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone needs to understand that when the state pays for rescue operations, it is a blessed gift to insurance companies. It is time for this to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe for free to our weekly newsletter<\/a> for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning. <\/p>\n

Charles Van der Elst, chairman of the French Federation of Alpine and Mountain Clubs, told Le Dauphin\u00e9 Lib\u00e9r\u00e9 newspaper that Peillex was being misleading and the mountaineers had done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

Peillex doubled down on X, formerly Twitter, responding: \u201cThe pointless controversy from [Van der Elst], completely out of touch and above all disconnected from the reality of the mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then added: \u201cApparently, the climbers who got helicoptered back down look so proud of their stunt that they\u2019re bragging about it on Instagram.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI did the right thing by charging them for the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years ago in another row, Peillex said conditions on Mont Blanc were so dangerous that climbers should pay a \u20ac15,000 deposit to cover rescue and possible funeral costs. <\/p>\n

From Westminster to Washington DC – our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mayor has defended his decision to charge 32 mountaineers who had to be rescued by a helicopter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-116676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-alps"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117113696029367664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}