“The responsibility of each mountaineer must be established,” says the mayor of Chamonix

“There may also be a language barrier, we need to re-examine the work on the quality of the information we can deliver to them,” adds Eric Fournier, guest on franceinfo on Wednesday.

“The responsibility of each mountaineer must be established”said the UDI mayor of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, on franceinfo Wednesday, September 11. He is reacting to the death of four climbers who had been missing since Saturday, September 7 and were found dead on Tuesday, September 10 in the Mont-Blanc massif, after helicopter rescue operations were repeatedly prevented due to the weather. According to Eric Fournier, the climbers, who had left without a guide, had the necessary information to choose the “I’m not going” option.

franceinfo: Should these climbers have taken a guide? ?

Eric Fournier : It is widely recommended, advocated. The idea of ​​the guide is indeed always welcome and necessary, but it is not obligatory. It is perfectly possible for seasoned mountaineers to embark on this climb, but the prerequisite is the quality of the information that we take at the start which allows us to say ‘I’m going, I’m not going’. In this case it was rather ‘I’m not going’ that had to be chosen as an option. The responsibility of each mountaineer must be established. There may also be the language barrier. We must re-examine and continue working in this direction, on the quality of the information that we can provide them. This is the only way to avoid tragedies of this type.

Four deaths in one week at the end of August, a Romanian climber who died in a fall at the beginning of September, a Pole who fell in the tea corridor at the end of June… Are these tragedies now part of everyday life?

Above all, we must avoid making hasty additions. Deaths cannot be assimilated to one another. In the case we are talking about, I think it is indeed a question of prior information or a lack of prior information. A certain number of tragedies that were known during the summer period – I am thinking of what happened in the Mont-Blanc du Taccul sector [deux alpinistes espagnols morts après avoir dévissé le 21 août] – are due to objective dangers, which cannot be anticipated.

Does global warming play a role in these accidents?

Absolutely, global warming has a very strong impact on the types of practices, and also on the periods of practice. And here too, information is crucial. Because, I repeat, we now have a quality of information that allows us to at least explain the freezing and thawing conditions, to explain the conditions in which we can or cannot reasonably engage. I say ‘reasonable’ because zero risk, in the mountains as in the sea, as in all natural environments, does not exist.