Watch Blaise Agresti’s talk about Mont Blanc below:
Can the hazards of stone fall encountered on the popular route on Mont Blanc—from the refuge of Tête Rousse to the refuge du Goûter—be understood and managed? Each year on average, three are killed and eight injured in this passage. In France, a popular point of view inside the mountain community is “mountains are a space for freedom.” On the Mont-Blanc, how to manage risks, freedom, and overpopulation on the main routes? How can we find negotiated solutions?
Colonel Blaise Agresti, a mountain guide, is in charge of the national mountain rescue school and coordinator for all the Peloton de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne (PGHM). He has been instrumental in the study conducted on the Couloir de Gouter. PGHM, is a French rescue organization that centralizes alerts, organizes rescues, coordinates large scale disaster relief, and performs accident investigations. The PGHM of Chamonix works on Mont Blanc and in the Haute-Savoie region and, in 2013 alone, rescued 1831 people.
View Blaise’s slides below: