The highest toilets in Europe were installed on Mont Blanc last week in an attempt to “clean up” the snow capped peak above Chamonix. With around 20 000 people a year attempting one or more of the 4 main routes to the summit, you can imagine that adds up to quite a lot of “merde” on the mountainside!
Situated at 4360m by the Vallot refuge, the 15m2 “eco” toilet block operates with minimal water whilst retaining a maximum amount of germs and excretions within. The toilets work with a rolling conveyor that is set in motion by the user – some sort of “pedal while you pee” mechanism! Waste is then deposited off the end of the conveyor into large sacs below where it is dried by a solar powered ventilator. As it dries, the contents are rendered nearly odourless and light enough for the bags to be removed periodically by helicopter.
Similar installations are already in place further down the popular itinerary at the refuge Nid d’Aigle (2360m) and at the Tête Rousse (3160m). It is just the Gouter hut (3817m) that lacks such facilities but that will be remedied when construction work on the new Gouter refuge begins next year.
All clever stuff and certainly they can only improve the lavatorial situation on the peak. Recently on the www.snowheads.com forum, a visitor reported seeing “a pile of frozen poo-poo over a meter high right outside the door” of the Vallot refuge! Let’s just pray that the bags don’t burst over the town when they’re being emptied…….
Photo credit: Le Dauphiné
