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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/25/france Hope was fading fast last night for eight mountaineers missing near Mont Blanc after a powerful avalanche caused one of the deadliest accidents to hit the French Alps in decades. More than 15 hours after a large chunk of ice broke off from the mountain and prompted the pre-dawn avalanche, five Austrian and three Swiss climbers had still not been recovered from the slopes of Mont Blanc du Tacul. Seven other French and Italian climbers were injured when the avalanche swept down the mountain at 3am yesterday, hitting a path often frequented by groups heading for the summit of Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest peak. They were recovering in hospital. Survivors spokes of a vast tract of ice moving silently but rapidly towards them, giving little time for escape. "The guide shouted, 'Run fast! Run fast!'," said Nicolas Duquesne, who sustained a broken ankle. "It didn't make any noise. It really was impressive. "We had just enough time to move away to the right before getting hit ... We were really lucky," said Duquesne, adding that he had to "swim" through the snow to get away. Another survivor, Italian guide Marco Delfini, said he saw "a wall of ice coming towards us and we were carried 200 metres." Regis Lavergne, a rescue worker, told French television there was "no more hope" of finding the missing mountaineers alive, adding that they were probably on the lower reaches of the glacier "underneath the lumps of serac [pillar of ice]". A large-scale search involving helicopters, Alpine guides and sniffer dogs had to be suspended yesterday afternoon for fear of more avalanches. "I don't think we'll manage to recover the bodies because they finished up in an area of high risk in which there are highly unstable towers of ice that could easily collapse," Adriano Favre, the director of Alpine rescue, told the AGI news agency. The wall of snow, which was 200 metres (650ft) long and 50 metres wide when it hit the mountaineers at an altitude of 3,600 metres, was described by an Haute Savoie police chief as "extraordinary". Daniel Pueyo said the sheer volume of this slide had made it deadly. Experts said weather conditions had been "excellent" throughout the night. "Last night it was cold, it was nice, so it was simply the weight of the ice which became too much," explained Yan Giezendanner, from the meteorological station in Chamonix. "It was a big slab and that slab was big enough to reach the team of climbers." Yesterday's disaster was the latest in a deadly season in the Alps. According to figures released last week, almost 100 people died this summer in the French, Italian and Swiss peaks, most of them in the Mont Blanc range. Speaking from Chamonix, the French interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, described the avalanche as "one of the worst accidents we have had for decades ... Even when all precautions have been taken, as seems to have been the case here, things can go dramatically wrong." Alliot-Marie said there was no chance of finding anyone alive after flying over the scene in a helicopter. The avalanche had been "monumental" and "inescapable". The route the climbers took is often busy. Groups tend to leave from their base before dawn when snow is firmest. A spokeswoman for a British tour firm in the region, Mountain Adventure Specialists, said it would continue with tours which take in the Mont Blanc du Tacul. "This isn't the first [accident] and it won't be the last," she said.

Reconstruction was always on the minds of those constructing the war-plan (though not as much as it should have been). Bullshit! The extent of planning was pretty hoping the Iraq would say "yay, The amerikan smart bombs and smart bullets and smart soldiers (not at all smart btw) only killed military targets with no collatoral damage! Woohoo, now lets vote and get on with our lives"

TIM-MAY. Timmeh!

exactly what I was thinkin'

Glad you two made it down safely. Ya showed good judgment on knowing your limits and being prepared.

great TR!

Yay! CC.com has a grandpa now! Nice call being on the conservative side of things. Live to fight another day!

that is horrible. Poor guy.

and muddy, somehow

just read this on sonnie trotter's blog: "Boulderers tend to make quick work of hard sport climbs, sport climbers make quick work of hard trad lines, hard trad climbers make quick work of big wall free climbs, (I.E. Tommy Caldwell) and Big Wall free climbers make short work of Patagonian Alpine climbs. And strong Alpine Climbers are nothing short of a GOD. Ever notice Rolo's feet never touch the ground? He hovers yo. I'm serious."

anyone else on this board listen to techno/trance or am I the only one? I am going to call out Corvallisclimb as well on the techno. He blasts Infected Mushroom like his life depends on it.

regardless of wheather or not you like techno, how can you not like this video! X0hOqrh3yuI

I second that, but add some crazy techno trance to the mix, and I can rock out all night PSYxT9GM0fQ z5LW07FTJbI

we currently have an annual photo contest. Could we have an annual TR contest? Or something of that nature? Some of us suck at photography but might be great writers.

that musta been the highlight of that guy's work day!

Just visited Columns today, when did the top of Limp Dick fall off? Did someone find it to be unsafe and lever it off?

Wow, the last lady is just unreal. laughter

Not a good story, but another account of that wall. We tried one of the 5.8s there and bailed after 1.5 pitches. Just gnar. Everything was loose, including some big flakes. We turned around at the bottom of a giant hanging plate about 10 ft across that was "wiggly"

Eagle Cap wilderness in NE OR is nice. Mid-High elev alpine meadows and valleys

I hate to say it, but 2 friends just got back from teaching english for a year in Korea in Seoul, and absolutely hated it. (didnt like the culture at all) They said the country was nice but if the position is in a big city, avoid it like the plague!

Mountain shots knows how to shoot! Nice summit photos dood!

Can we have a politics forum so that spray is not sullied by pointless circular name calling? (At least keep circular name calling related to nonpolitik things.) Maybe it is just cause the election is coming up, but some of you are getting a little mind numbing.