Tragic series of falls in the Alps. The lifeless body ofa septuagenarian who was hiking alone in Haute-Maurienne (Savoie) on the GR5 was found this Friday around 1 p.m. at the foot of a rocky bar, between the Iseran pass and Bessans. According to our information, the experienced man had left Val d’Isère the day before and was due to join a gîte on Thursday evening in Bessans. It was a relative, living in the Paris region, who was worried about not having any news and called the emergency services. The hiker would have slipped down a grassy slopeover 150 to 200 meters.
Fifth death in two days
Thursday, still in Savoie, Another 50-year-old Czech hiker left the GR Tour du Mont-Blanc and also slipped down a grassy slope, at more than 2,000 meters above sea level in the area of the Croix du Bonhomme pass. He was found dead on a snowfield, at the foot of a waterfall.
Again on Thursday, two mountaineers lost their lives in two separate accidents in the Mont-Blanc massif (Haute-Savoie). Around 7am, a 36-year-old Taiwanese national unscrewed several hundred meters: he was climbing, unroped, with another climber at more than 3,000 meters on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi. At the end of the day, another 26 year old Polish mountaineerwho was riding alone, was killed in the Goûter corridor.
Already on Wednesday, in the Italian Alps, A climber fell on the Miage glacierat approximately 2,800 meters above sea level on the southern slope of the Mont-Blanc massif. “His companions saw him slide into a ravine,” Val d’Aosta alpine rescue services told AFP.
“Maximum caution, the snowfields are still very present”
“We are seeing a lot of accidents in recent days because there has been heavy snow at altitude this winter and there remains a significant amount of snow above 2,000 meters,” explain Captain Stéphane Narbaud, second in command of the PGHM of Savoie. “We really need to be extremely careful because the snowfields are still very present, they block part of the paths (…) when trying to go around them, people get lost and slip.”
The Haute-Savoie prefecture also warned on Friday of storm disturbances that could cause heavy precipitation, gusts of wind and electrical activity on Saturday. “It would be reasonable to postpone mountain outings in order to benefit from conditions more conducive to the practice of mountaineering and outdoor activities,” she emphasizes.
