Rescue workers are calling for vigilance. In two days, five climbers or hikers have suffered fatal falls in the Alps, especially in the Mont Blanc massif, we learned on Friday, June 28, from French and Italian rescue workers.
A Czech, a Pole and a Taiwanese are among those killed in the French Alps, and one victim was reported on the Italian side, according to the sources.
The Val d’Aosta Alpine Rescue Service explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that it had intervened on Wednesday with a climber who had fallen on the Miage glacier, at an altitude of around 2,800 metres on the southern slope of the Mont Blanc massif in Italy. “The alert was given by his companions who saw him slip into a ravine. The climber is dead, his comrades are unharmed »they clarified.
Shortly before 7:30 a.m. Thursday, a climber from Taiwan, “aged about thirty”fell several hundred meters while moving at more than 3,000 meters on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi, according to the Chamonix high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM).
At the end of the day, around 6 p.m., a Polish national of the same age group died in the same circumstances in the Goûter corridor, at an altitude of 3,500 meters, according to the same source.
Heavy snowfall
On the same day, a Czech hiker left a trail and slipped on a grassy slope, at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres in the area of the Col de la Croix-du-Bonhomme, south of the Mont Blanc massif, according to Captain Stéphane Narbaud, deputy commander of the PGHM of Savoie.
On Friday, his teams found in Haute-Maurienne the lifeless body of a hiker who had probably fallen the day before, also slipping on a grassy slope, he added.
“We are seeing a lot of accidents in recent days because there has been heavy snowfall at altitude this winter and there is still a significant amount of snow at over 2,000 metres”explains the captain.
“It blocks part of the trails. When trying to get around them, people get lost and slip”he continues, calling “to be very careful this year”.
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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 your plans for mountain outings in order to benefit from conditions more conducive to mountaineering and outdoor activities”she emphasizes.
