(CNN) — Anyone wanting to summit Europe's tallest peak, Mont Blanc, may soon have to put up a €15,000 (about $15,300) deposit to cover possible rescue and funeral costs under plans announced by a local mayor fed up with the "contempt" of risk-taking climbers. According to the mayor, the €15,000 deposit corresponds to the "average cost of a rescue (€10,000) and to the funeral costs of a victim (€5,000)." "It is unacceptable that it is the French taxpayer who bears these costs," Peillex said, adding that those who make the climb now do so "with death in their backpack." Climbing Mont Blanc has been made riskier by large rockfalls and a period of drought and heat waves, he added. His statement said gendarmes in a helicopter used a megaphone to make a group of Romanian hikers turn back from an attempt to summit Mont Blanc using a megaphone on July 30.

Source: CNN August 04, 2022 18:20 UTC