Four Korean and Italian climbers, trapped for three days by bad weather near the summit of Mont Blanc, have been found “died of exhaustion” Tuesday, September 10, announced the Haute-Savoie prefecture to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Rescuers, who had difficulty accessing the site due to difficult weather conditions, “first found the rope of two Koreans, and in the immediate vicinity, the Italians”.
No contact had been established with the climbers since Saturday. That day, late in the afternoon, the high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM) had been alerted to “three roped parties lost not far from the summit of Mont Blanc in very poor weather conditions”.
A rope team composed of two Koreans had been able to be evacuated on Sunday morning, thanks to significant resources, at an altitude of 4,100 metres, not far from the Col de la Brenva. But the deterioration of weather conditions had not allowed any intervention since for the two other rope teams being sought, formed by two other Koreans and two Italians.
Conversation interrupted
A PGHM command official told the regional daily: The Dauphiné liberated that it had been possible to “locate and [d’]briefly exchanged on the phone with the two Italians who were on the north face of Mont Blanc at an altitude of 4,600 metres”before the conversation was interrupted.
On Tuesday morning, the prefecture announced that the search had been unsuccessful due to poor weather conditions. “There was an attempted flyover this [mardi] morning by helicopter from Chamonix. But the rescuers were unable to get through the cloud barrier and they turned back.”she had specified.
Another aircraft was scheduled to take off in the afternoon from Annecy, while the weather was forecast to be more favourable. An Italian rescue patrol had also left “by land” in the morning, still according to the prefecture.
Source: Lemonde
