Rescue teams search for the missing after a team of 28 climbers triggered a catastrophic avalanche on Mont Blanc, French Alps, July 12, 2012. Photo: Guardian UK
An avalanche in the French Alps on Thursday, July 12, 2012 swept a large crew of European climbers down the Mount Maudit slope leading to Mont Blanc, accounting for 9 deaths, at least eleven hospitalized and several others unaccounted for, authorities said. Rescue teams are still searching for the missing.
First reports of the wipeout on Mont Maudit came at 5:25 a.m. when the climbers were about a thousand feet from the summit of the 14,649 foot mountain, NYDailyNews.com reported.
“We were initially alerted just after dawn by one of the survivors who called us on a mobile phone,” said Bertrand François of the local gendarmerie.
Dozens of gendarmes were furiously searching through the snow for survivors of the doomed expedition that included 28 climbers from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland, officials said.
The mayor of Chamonix, Eric Fournier, is referring to the catastrophe as “one of the deadliest avalanches in recent years…There was no weather bulletin giving any avalanche warning,” he told The Guardian.
A climber trying to scale Mont Blanc accidently caused a slab of ice to snap off Thursday high in the French Alps, sparking an avalanche. As a sheet of snow and ice thundered down the steep slope, several other climbers managed to turn away from the slide in time, regional authorities in Haute-Savoie said.
Rescue teams search for the missing after a team of 28 climbers triggered a catastrophic avalanche on Mont Blanc, French Alps, July 12, 2012. Photo: Guardian UK
Two other climbers were rescued as emergency crews using dogs and helicopters scoured the churned-up, high-altitude area in a frantic search for the missing. Their quest, hampered by the possibility of further avalanches, was called off before nightfall.
Three Britons, three Germans and two Spaniards were among the dead, their governments confirmed. The other victim was from Switzerland, according to the gendarme service in the French mountain town of Chamonix.
Early summer storms apparently left behind heavy snow that combined with high winds to form dangerous overhanging conditions on some of the popular climbing routes around Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in western Europe. Regional authorities had warned climbers earlier this summer to be careful because of an unusually snowy spring.
The Mont Blanc massif is a popular area for climbers, hikers and tourists but a dangerous one, with dozens dying on it each year. Chamonix, a top center for climbing, hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924.
Some of the climbers were with professional guides, others were climbing independently.
The gendarme service said it was alerted around 5:25 a.m. Thursday to the avalanche, which hit a group of climbers — ones from Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Denmark and Serbia — some 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) high on the north face of Mont Maudit, part of the Mont Blanc range.
A block of ice some 40 centimeters (16 inches) thick broke off and slid down the slope, creating a mass of snow that was 2 meters (6-foot) deep and 50 meters (160 feet) long.
“The first elements that we have from testimony are that a climber could have set loose a sheet of ice, and that sheet then pulled down the group of climbers below. I should say that the incline was very, very steep on this northern face,” Col. Bertrand François of the Haute-Savoie gendarme service told reporters.
It was not immediately known if the climber lived or died.
Rescue teams search for the missing after a team of 28 climbers triggered a catastrophic avalanche on Mont Blanc, French Alps, July 12, 2012. Photo: Guardian UK
According to recent tweets from climbers, high winds led to overhanging ice slabs forming on the slope. Several days ago Chamonix saw a monsoon-like downpour which turned to snow at 3,000 meters (9,850 feet) high.
Jonas Moestrup from the western Danish city of Randers heard about the accident as he was on his way down from Mont Blanc.
“Three days ago, we ascended it (Mont Maudit). It was shocking to hear, it could easily have been us,” he told the Danish news agency Ritzau by telephone. “It is scary and tragic.”
Still, he noted the allure of those foreboding, majestic Alpine peaks.
“It’s part of the thrill that something can go wrong,” he told Ritzau.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls flew over the site later Thursday, describing it as “a particularly spectacular block of ice.” He said the climbers appeared to be an experienced group, and that the churned-up snow had made the search particularly difficult.
A spokesperson for the British Foreign Office said the British ambassador to Paris was heading to Chamonix.
French investigators will examine the circumstances of the deaths.
Additional details have been provided by the Associated Press.
Shannon Marie Quirk is an editor, writer, photographer and graphic designer for The Ski Channel.
Snowboarding means everything to this Lake Tahoe local, often found chasing down endless winters deep in Los Andes Mountain region backcountry of Patagonia during the summertime. She is no stranger to the Mammoth Mountain Superpipe, where she took 1st place in Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe for SCCSC league, 1st in Women’s Snowboard Freestyle for the 2009 season, and 5th in Slopestyle at USCSA Nationals placing 8th overall for the women. A passion for photography channels her athleticism towards a career path as a sports journalist, supported by Bachelor of Arts degrees from UCLA in English and Spanish literature. Also a passionate surfer, this gal can’t stay far from a board as she shreds the hemispheres guided by mother nature’s weather patterns.
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