Amateur alpinist and former French government minister Éric Woerth has triggered a snowslide of sneers online with a bizarrely awful attempt at braggadocio via a staged photo purportedly from a glacier in the French Alps.

The former MP for Oise took to Twitter Monday to share his passion for mountaineering while also displaying some oddly gravity-defying strength and skill. Woerth shared a photo of him testing his mettle against an apparently sheer cliff face while climbing the Aiguille d'Argentiere on Mont Blanc.

But rather than a truly inspiring display of human endeavor, it was merely a laughably bad attempt at photo trickery, as literally hundreds of Twitter users gleefully pointed out through a series of intentionally awful photoshops.

Par la porte ou par la fenêtre pic.twitter.com/606cs0BsrG — Lax (@LacroixThibaul1) August 12, 2019

- Mais qu’est-ce tu fous Eric ? pic.twitter.com/IZEDodLYi8 — François-Ferdinand Féline (@_tripleF_) August 12, 2019

Firstly, the tag of the MP’s jacket appears to dangle towards the “cliff face” and not the ground hundreds of feet below – apparently the laws of physics do not apply to former labor ministers.

Then, of course, there are the two silhouettes in the distance who also appear to defy gravity, though even more impressively than Worth as they are walking upright up the cliff.

Lastly, it would be rather foolhardy and potentially fatal for the minister to put his faith in the ‘safety line’ pictured ‘dangling’ limply on the ground next to him if he were to fall.

Quand t'en as marre que personne s'occupe des forces du mal pic.twitter.com/IUlcpMv1pO — OUIYAM (@wlmlcrq) August 12, 2019

Following the deluge of derision online, one would think that the minister would back down, but no, instead he doubled down, claiming that his guide could confirm the authenticity of the photo.

“I can call my high mountain guide to attest,” he told the Parisien, alleging that the two silhouettes in the background of the photo were not on the same side of the glacier and were in fact 200 meters lower (not behind) him.

“The avalanche (a dangerous phenomenon in the mountains...) of comments caused by the publication of a photo on the mountain forces me to say, at the risk of disappointing, that this image is authentic and without retouching, the intention of the photo is good, but good sense is rare it would seem…” he tweeted Tuesday, adding further to his photoshopped woes.

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