Mountaineers around the world over have noted how rising temperatures have made once safe routes to the summit now too perilous to attempt.
Research now suggests that Europe’s highest peak is fast heading down the same path, with 100 deaths each year on average.
The growing risks of landslides on the approaches to the summit of Mont-Blanc has led the French tourist spot to be rated the world’s most dangerous natural site.
Both professional mountaineers and amateur climbers have fallen victim to the almost daily rockfalls.
Over the summer three people were killed while tackling the Goûter corridor to the peak of Mont-Blanc.
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The title was awarded to Mont Blanc by the online vacation rental site Holidu, finishing top ahead of Ben Nevis, in Scotland, and Mount Fuji, in Japan.
A guide Ludovic Ravanel told French channel TF1 last August: “In the Mont-Blanc massif alone, we have had much more significant phenomena this year with much larger volumes.”
According to Océane Vibert the director of the mountain office in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc autumn is often the worst as heat builds up in the rocks.
He said: “All the heat that has been stored, we often pay for in autumn because there is a sort of inertia of this heat which enters the rock.”
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Despite the risks or perhaps as a result of them, people continue to flock to Mont Blanc.
However, officials warn that increased numbers on the mountain only increase the risk of accidents.
The mayor of the town of Saint-Gervais, Haute-Savoie, Jean-Marc Peillex said: “We are witnessing an overcrowding of a site that has become fashionable. People come to do the Mont-Blanc to achieve an exploit, but they know little about the mountain.
“They skip the steps when such an ascent should be the culmination of a learning process.”
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