A US climber who tried to go up western Europe's highest peak with his two children has sparked alarm among professional guides and officials in France for what some see as "cranks" putting lives at risk on Mont Blanc.

Patrick Sweeney was with his nine-year-old son P.J. and 11-year-old daughter Shannon when they got caught in an avalanche on the mountain.
The family escaped uninjured, but video footage of the incident in a spot known as the "Corridor of Death" caused an outcry when it was broadcast in the US last month.
"On Mont Blanc, we have seen it all," lamented the president of the French union of mountain guides Denis Crabieres.
For he and other professionals, it was the latest of too many ill-advised expeditions low on judgement and high on ego.
Four climbers were killed on Mont Blanc in three days alone last week, highlighting the risks even for those whom officials said were "very well equipped".
From an aborted attempt to drive a car down Mont Blanc, other attempted descents in a paella pan or on a mountain bike to novice climbers seeking a thrill, the video of Sweeney and his falling offspring barely surprised Crabieres.
The US father was reportedly aiming to help his son set a world record for the youngest mountaineer to reach the Alps' 4,810-metre (15,780-feet) peak. The current record was set in 2009 by a 10-year-old.
"He has actually just set the record for stupidity," Crabieres told AFP.
Mayor Jean-Marc Peillex of the nearby French town of Saint-Gervais was clearly outraged.
- 'Record for stupidity' -
A long-standing critic of inexperienced or unprepared climbers making attempts on the summit, he had already slammed Sweeney as "reckless".
Last week he went a step further and lodged a complaint at the local police station against the American for the crime of "endangering the life of others", according to an official document posted on his Twitter account.
"If you don't do anything against these people, then they will win," he said.
Christophe Boloyan, president of French mountain safety and rescue organisation Chamoniarde said the latest incident was a "shocking but still a very isolated case".
"The rules are generally followed by the climbers because no-one wants to die," he said.But he warned that the summit's reputation had resulted in a worrying tendency among some visitors to treat it as a "consumer object". Around 25,000 people visit each European summer.
For Olivier Obin, of Mountain Coordination, a collective of French, Swiss and Italian associations, the lure of the mountain simply causes many to cast aside common sense.
"There is a strong symbolic dimension and one finds it with climbers who lose their sense of reality and reason," he said.
Even experienced climbers were prone to abdicating "all critical thinking in the face of Mont Blanc", often refusing to turn around when weather conditions worsen, he added.
Mountain professionals said they were frequently surprised at the poor level of physical preparation among would-be mountaineers.Others, they said, had little or no knowledge of how to use their equipment, with some unable to rope up or even use their crampons.
- 'Cranks' -
Between 1990 and 2011, 74 climbers have been killed and 180 injured on the Gouter corridor, the most common route taken up the mountain, according to the Petzl Foundation, which promotes mountain safety awareness.
Citing the case of a Polish climber who contacted the Chamonix high mountain gendarmerie unit to demand that they take him off the mountain by helicopter, the mayor of Saint-Gervais believes that the mountain is attracting "more and more cranks".
The man asked to be evacuated by air because he did not want to make the trek back down.
When officials refused to help on grounds that was not injured or in distress, he tried to charter a private helicopter before being helped down by a guide.
The mayor said he believed those who take risks on Mont Blanc should pay a tax that would cover any rescue operation, should it be necessary.
"They should be hit in their wallet," he said.
"Historically, mountains don't have an administration," added Obin. "Would that be a solution? I don't know?.
"The area is so vast that it would be very complicated," he said.