A FORMER Royal Marine has sparked fury by dumping a rowing machine on Europe’s highest mountain.
Matt Disney, 36, climbed 15,780ft Mont Blanc with it on his back — but said bad weather forced him to abandon it at the summit.
But local mayor Jean-Marc Peillex accused him of being a litter lout — and threatened to send the £1,600 bill for its removal to the British Embassy in Paris.
Mr Peillex also tweeted a photo of the abandoned £900 Concept 2 rower to PM Boris Johnson.
He said: “With a name like Disney, you’d think he thought he was at an amusement park.”
Matt, from Staining, Lancs, who rowed the equivalent of Blanc’s height at the top, said high winds and cloud meant he had to leave it.
He said: ”I’m a mountain man, I have the highest respect for mountains and would never litter.
“I had full permission to take the rowing machine up there and I had every intention of bringing it down.
“I left it very tidily in a hut near the top and I have every intention of going to get it sometime between September 12 and 30.
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“It’s not littering and the mayor has got it wrong.”
Matt, who was fundraising for soldiers’ charities, added: “I’m the sort of bloke who’d walk two miles with a plastic bottle to find a bin.”
But Mr Peillex, mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, said a helicopter is needed to retrieve it, adding: “We need to stop these crazy people who think they can break all the rules.”
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