Tradgedy on Mt Blanc

[111]

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.

[111]

The "almost 100 dead this season" amazes me.

[Peakpimp]

R.I.P.

[Buckaroo]

RIP in the mountains, fellow travelers.

 

The "almost 100 dead this season" amazes me.

 

I wonder what the numbers are percentage wise compared to here?

 

I have had the impression (true or not) that the euros are a bit more blase about death. To the point where some of them don't really care when they kick down rocks on parties below.

 

The AAC should publish their Accidents book online instead of forcing people to buy a printed(waste of trees) book every year. That way the vital info about staying alive could be more widely distributed.

[Hendershot]

It's only my first year as a member of the AAC, but I thought a copy of the Accidents in North America report was sent to members with the AAJ.

[Dechristo]

it is

[G-spotter]

Another case where Tauntauns would have saved lives.

[ivan]

Another case where Tauntauns would have saved lives.

i dunno, remember how easy that tauntaun went down when that gnarly old snow-monster swiped it? i'm thinking a big block of ice would do about the same thing...

[Mal_Con]

Euros are a bit more blasse' because this has been going on a long time there. The Matterhorn FA tragedy was in 1865. There have been many since. In WA we had the serac collapse a few years back at Cowlitz Flats which was similar. There people acknowledge the hazards and do not bitch when it happens. We need to do a lot of growing up.

[Choada_Boy]

We need a good war on our soil to make us more "blase" about death. Stacks of bodies in crematoria make a 100 dead climbers look like nothing.

[TimL]

I think where those people got nailed is the same place where some Brits died last year in the same sorta accident. I think people always die right in that area. I don't think these people are more blase about death, it's more like people being guided through a really dangerous area. I've seen pictures of that route in the middle of the night and there is a solid line of headlamps from the beginning to end. It'd be like a solid line of people from Muir to the summit. It;s the highest peak in Europe. Thats why I've never gone to the Alps.

[cfire]

I think where those people got nailed is the same place where some Brits died last year in the same sorta accident. I think people always die right in that area. I don't think these people are more blase about death, it's more like people being guided through a really dangerous area. I've seen pictures of that route in the middle of the night and there is a solid line of headlamps from the beginning to end. It'd be like a solid line of people from Muir to the summit. It;s the highest peak in Europe. Thats why I've never gone to the Alps.

 

That is not the route you are referring to. The Tacul/Maudi route is not nearly as busy as the standard route as it is a lot longer summit day. I did it a few years ago and met about 5 other groups on the route on the way down...hardly a "solid line".

 

And if your in Spain and not visiting the Alps, you will regret it. There's plenty to do away from any crowds.

[TimL]

I think where those people got nailed is the same place where some Brits died last year in the same sorta accident. I think people always die right in that area. I don't think these people are more blase about death, it's more like people being guided through a really dangerous area. I've seen pictures of that route in the middle of the night and there is a solid line of headlamps from the beginning to end. It'd be like a solid line of people from Muir to the summit. It;s the highest peak in Europe. Thats why I've never gone to the Alps.

 

That is not the route you are referring to. The Tacul/Maudi route is not nearly as busy as the standard route as it is a lot longer summit day. I did it a few years ago and met about 5 other groups on the route on the way down...hardly a "solid line".

 

And if your in Spain and not visiting the Alps, you will regret it. There's plenty to do away from any crowds.

 

Well, whatever solid lines experiences we both had they seem to be different, but i saw a friggin solid line. Say whatu wanna say.

 

I've always thought.....why go to Frenchyland when you have.... ....well..........Espana!

[ScaredSilly]

Here is a photo of Mont Blanc du Tacul

 

http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/117842.JPG

 

If you look carefully in the shadow to the right of the triangular face you can see people on the slope. There are several parties on the route which takes a sweeping right turn towards the skyline. Notice all of the avalanche debris at the base?

 

Oh yeah - notice the snow walls in fore ground built by dirt bag Brits too cheap to stay in the huts .

 

As for the acceptance of death in the mountains. I am not so sure it is acceptance but more that there are way more people in the alps than in the mountains of North America. The Alps are huge and very accessible by many many people. So I would expect that there are more deaths but on a per visit basis it is probably very similar to that in North America

[XXX]

Europeans are not more blase about death, just imagine Mt hood south spur times ten!!! This is what the alps are like. They are way overdeveloped and way overcrowded.