The mayor of Chamonix, Michel Charlet has described plans to paint the summit of Mont-Blanc red as “stupid and illegal”. A Danish artist, Marco Evaristti wants to colour the summit of Western-Europe’s highest mountain with fruit based pigments to draw attention to the pollution in the Alps caused by tourism. Charlet told the AFP news agency that there has been a earlier project to “paint the glaciers blue” by another team and said that Evaristti was a self-publicist.
The artist says that he intends to go ahead with his project whether or not he receives permission. Charlet warned him that “Mont Blanc benefits from the strictest environmental protection” and that a “helicopter landing is forbidden on the summit.” He continued that the project is incoherent, “you can’t protect the environment by degrading a protected area”. The mayor has alerted the Gendarmerie in Chamonix.
However, while not agreeing with Evarissti’s stunt, it is the local mayors that have been described as “incoherent” by environmental groups. Local politicians have fiercely resisted calls to class Mont-Blanc as a national park as this would severely restrict increasing the tourist flights and the development of ski resorts at the foot of the 4810 meter mountain. The helicopter ban is moot with groups of skiers dropped just over the border with Italy and Switzerland before descending into France. Mountain Wilderness France has described the mayor of St Gervais as a “schizophrenic” with his calls for a permit system to climb Mont-Blanc while at the same time facilitating access through the refurbishment of the last leg of the Mont-Blanc tramway.
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