What would have been impossible for many became a personal mission for Maël Le Lagadec, a young Frenchman of just 18.
After learning that the historic cross that crowned Aneto, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees, had been stolen and destroyed in an act of vandalism, he decided to build a new one with his own hands and return it to the summit.
The cross, made of wood and protected with a special varnish to withstand high-mountain conditions, weighed 35 kilos. To install it, Maël covered 28 kilometers, climbed 1,900 meters in elevation gain, and also carried another 15 kilos of tools needed to secure it at the summit.
The demanding journey lasted about 15 hours and was aided by a friend and several mountaineers he met during the ascent, who helped with the most difficult sections.
Upon reaching the summit, the young man confessed that he burst into tears from emotion.
“After so much effort, I knelt down and cried. It was the happiness of having achieved it”, he recalled later.
His gesture was widely applauded by mountaineers and local residents, who appreciated that someone so young chose to restore one of Aneto’s most recognizable symbols while the investigation to recover the original cross continues.
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