The Pic Saint-Michel cross has disappeared!

Where did the Pic Saint-Michel cross go? This is the question that hikers and elected officials have been asking themselves for several days, like the mayor of Lans-en-Vercors, Michaël Kraemer. “There is no death of a man, but it is on the symbolism. The crosses no longer have a religious character, they are inscribed in the landscape. There are many localities marked by a cross. C ‘is a heritage, and then it gives a goal, it marks a peak. “

“It can’t be the wind’s fault, in my opinion, since there wasn’t any. Maybe someone who played with the cross, broke it, wanted to clear … But given the snow conditions that there are currently, that means that it is someone who practices the mountain “- Michael Kraemer, mayor of Lans-en-Vercors

A personal message on the cross

But if there was only the cross … Hanging on it, there was a personal message, engraved on a wooden heart: “To my adored daddy”. These words were written by Cédric Barbadet, then 13 years old, in homage to his father, an alpine hunter in the 93rd artillery regiment of Varces, and who died in 2008. It is moreover this unit which mounted the cross to the top of Pic Saint-Michel, in memory of one of their own.

Today, Cédric Barbadet, from Varces, is 26 years old, and he joined the army, like his father. “For my family and loved ones, it was much more than a cross. It is the memory of my father, it brought back memories to all those close to him when they climbed the Pic. It’s a shame that people vandalize this kind of monument. “

This is not the first time that a cross has disappeared in the Vercors. “We reassembled this cross in 2008, in tribute to my father, but also to replace the previous one, which disappeared we do not know how”, explains Cédric Barbadet. And that was already the case, recalls the mayor of Lans, of the Croix des Rameses, shot down a few years ago and thrown into the void, before being rebuilt. He also wonders what drives people to attack these symbols. “I do not understand that we are attacking that. I know that there is a movement of return of the mountain in the natural state, but a cross at the top of a summit, that does not damage the mountain.”

We must keep hope of finding it. But I have measured hope. If the cross has been swung across the cliff, there is very little chance it will be found. It’s a part of our heritage that is gone – Michael Kraemer, mayor of Lans-en-Vercors

Lack of respect for the mountain

For Cédric Barbadet, “there is affect”, but it is also the image of the mountain, of its history, and of the mountain people which is soiled by this act. “Many monks mounted these crosses during the conquest of the summits, so it is heritage. It is a pity that people come to vandalize! People should be cultivated on these monuments. Whoever took the cross cannot belong to the mountain community. It is a spirit and values. “

Touched, inevitably, by the disappearance of the cross and the wooden heart, he nevertheless promises to return to the Saint-Michel peak when the snow melts, to try to find it. If he does not find it, he promises that a cross will be given to the Saint-Michel peak, with a heart. “The heart has been in place for years. I have been told about it several times, people are happy, moved that there is a small memorial. It has its place.”

“We must continue to put crosses and hearts. If the mountaineers stop putting them on, paying homage, it is the vandals who will win.” – Cédric Barbadet, author of the wooden heart that dresses the missing cross

According to our colleagues from Dauphiné Libéré, the mayor of Lans-en-Vercors decided to file a complaint on Friday at the Villard-de-Lans gendarmerie