The mayor of Saint-Gervais decided to file a complaint against the two mountaineers after discovering a video on YouTube where they show their night spent at the top.
A night of bivouac at the top of Mont-Blanc sparked a lively controversy between the mayor of Saint-Gervais (Haute-Savoie), Jean-Marc Peillex, and two mountaineers. The city councilor even decided to file a complaint against them, as he announced in a video posted on Facebook Friday, December 30.
The case, relayed by France Info begins on November 20, 2022. Two mountaineers post on the YouTube channel of one of them, “Instinct Sauvage”, a video titled “Sleeping at the top of Mont-Blanc: 9 days of expedition“. The two young men show their ascent and their night at the top of Mont-Blanc. However, the perimeter has been the subject of a prefectural decree for the protection of the natural habitat since October 2020, prohibiting “any form of camping», including the bivouac.
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The discovery of this video, a few days ago, aroused the wrath of the mayor of Saint-Gervais, who denounced “weirdo“. “What is allowed is skiing and mountaineering, and nothing else. We are not allowed to come with a drone, a rower, to bivouac, except at the base camp of Tête Rousse at 3200 meters, where we have the right to bivouac“explains the mayor.
Elected at the head of Saint-Gervais since 2001, Jean-Marc Peillex has made the regulation of mass tourism in the mountains one of his priorities, as recalled France Info. He had notably written to the President of the Republic, in September 2022, to ask him to act to fight against the overcrowding of natural spaces. Contacted by our colleagues, the two mountaineers say they are aware of the restrictions imposed to protect this sensitive site. They say they have not measured a total ban in this off-season period.
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