“It was important to me to finish what I had started. » Saturday May 30, Maël Le Lagadec, an 18-year-old from Montalban, went up to the Aneto peak, the highest point of the Pyrenees chain. With a friend, he fixed the new wooden cross there, carried with the strength of his arms two weeks earlier. “To those who vandalize these symbols of our mountains, I wanted to prove that I will climb as many times as it takes to restore it. »
For more than a month, the “war of the crosses”, as the local press calls it, has been poisoning the peaks. In mid-April, the original metal model, more than seventy years old, disappeared from the Aneto peak, cut with a grinder. Spanish authorities open investigation into vandalism.
Maël Le Lagadec, passionate about mountaineering since last September, decided to carve a new cross in walnut wood. He adorns it with fleur-de-lys, “a symbol that represents our history and that of Spain, religion and royalty,” he explains. After an eight-hour climb, with around fifty kg on his back, the young man planted his work in the ice, as the weather conditions did not allow it to be anchored to the ground. “My back hurt a lot, but I felt a mix of crazy emotions, relief and great joy,” he recalls. “I even cried, even though that doesn’t happen very often to me. »
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The “most difficult” physical test of a life
Today, the new cross is “solidly installed” next to the statue of the Virgin, facing the French Pyrenees, says the apprentice landscaper. However, this was not easy: after reaching the summit for the second time this Saturday, Maël had to face the facts. Because of the snow, it was impossible to “stay the cross to the ground with steel wires”. “I hammered nails into his foot, and I attached steel rods that were sticking through. I then sealed it with very large rocks so that no one could remove it easily,” he explains. The base of the old model is preserved for the purposes of the investigation, at the request of the Guardia Civil.
The local press hails an “exploit” and a “physical prowess”. This story goes viral on the networks, and one of Maël’s 10,000 new subscribers launches a fundraiser to help him with his future “renovation projects”. Nothing that could go to the head of the young man, who explains that above all he “learned humility and surpassing oneself”. “At the start, I wasn’t at all sure that my project would succeed,” he confides. It was the most difficult physical challenge of my life, and I am proud to see what I was able to accomplish with sheer force of will. »
For the young man, who does not define himself as a believer, these summit crosses are above all a “symbol of the mountains and an important landmark for mountaineers”, that of Aneto for example being placed opposite a dangerous passage. Common in the Alps and the Pyrenees, the latter are nevertheless at the heart of a lively debate on the presence of religious symbols in natural spaces, the installation of such symbols being illegal on public property according to the law of 1905.
When the acts of vandalism targeting some of these crosses are mentioned, Maël Le Lagadec deplores a demonstration of “hatred on an object which asked for nothing”. Faced with messages accusing him of imposing a religion, the Montalbanais “invites us to learn about the historical and cultural significance of these crosses and to protect this heritage”, while recalling that his approach consists only of restoring already existing elements.
