A US climber who tried to go up western Europe’s highest peak with his two children has sparked alarm among professional guides and officials in France for what some see as “cranks” putting lives at risk on Mont Blanc.
Patrick Sweeney was with his nine-year-old son, P.J., and 11-year-old daughter, Shannon, when they got caught in an avalanche on the mountain.
The family escaped uninjured, but video of the incident in a spot known as the “Corridor of Death” caused an outcry when it was broadcast in the US last month.
“On Mont Blanc, we have seen it all,” French mountain guides union president Denis Crabieres said.
For him and other professionals, it was the latest of too many ill-advised expeditions low on judgement and high on ego.
Four climbers were killed on Mont Blanc in three days alone last week, highlighting the risks even for those whom officials said were “very well equipped.”
After incidents ranging from an aborted attempt to drive a car down Mont Blanc and attempted descents in a paella pan or on a mountain bike to novice climbers seeking a thrill, the video of Sweeney and his falling offspring barely surprised Crabieres.
The US father was reportedly aiming to help his son set a world record for the youngest mountaineer to reach the Alps’ 4,810m peak. The current record was set in 2009 by a 10-year-old.
“He has actually just set the record for stupidity,” Crabieres said.
Mayor Jean-Marc Peillex of the nearby French town of Saint-Gervais was outraged.
A critic of unprepared climbers making summit attempts, he had already slammed Sweeney as “reckless.”
Last week he went further and lodged a complaint at the local police station against the US climber for “endangering the life of others,” according to an official document posted on his Twitter account.
“If you don’t do anything against these people, then they will win,” he said.
French mountain safety and rescue organization Chamoniarde president Christophe Boloyan said the latest incident was a “shocking, but still a very isolated, case.”
“The rules are generally followed by the climbers because no-one wants to die,” he said.
However, he said that the summit’s reputation had resulted in a tendency among some visitors to treat it as a “consumer object.”
About 25,000 people visit each summer.
For Olivier Obin, of Mountain Coordination, a collective of French, Swiss and Italian associations, the lure of the mountain simply causes many to cast aside common sense.
“There is a strong symbolic dimension and one finds it with climbers who lose their sense of reality and reason,” he said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was