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Renowned French mountaineer and mountain guide Christophe Profit was fined 600 euros in France on Monday for theft following removing stakes from a Mont Blanc route in a militant act. The 62-year-old mountaineer, known for having opened several glacier routes above 3850 meters in the 1980s, had removed four mooring piles last June and July, two on French territory and two others in Italy, on the normal Mont-Blanc route.

Lire: At Mont-Blanc, the stakes of anger

During his trial for theft, Christophe Profit, who became known in 1982 for his solo ascent of a 900-meter wall on the west face of Les Drus, in the Mont-Blanc massif, told the hearing to have acted “to prevent amateur mountaineers without experience from taking unnecessary risks”. Last summer, Christophe Profit had already shared his fears with the Temps: “These anchorages are a milestone and invite the uninitiated to take the route which has become very steep and dangerous following the appearance of the crevasses. This is a misleading indication,” he said. The guide also fears that these four metal peaks are an open door to other installations of all kinds.

At the hearing, he stressed that there was “a possible alternative route” which respected the very essence of the discipline, namely the absence of human settlement. He himself found an alternative passage, he explained to the Temps. Less steep than the normal route, which he has renamed “voie des piles”, his route bypasses the passage to the left, swerving along the north face of Mont-Blanc.

Will Mont-Blanc be more and more secure? Will new piles be installed along the crevices? The debate will continue to animate those who want to keep the mountain free from all impurity and others who wish to allocate means to make its journey more secure.

Read, regarding Christophe Profit: Rather mature than grow old