07/07/2024 – 15:45
A team of mountaineers found evidence this Saturday, June 6, that Brazilian mountaineer Marcelo Delvaux, 55, missing since June 30 on one of the summits of the Nevado Coropuna volcano, the fourth highest in Peru, had fallen into a crevasse in the ice and is most likely dead. The mountaineer’s body, however, has not yet been found.
According to a friend of Delvaux, with whom Estadão spoke, the crevice where the climber’s equipment was found on the edge is very large and the weather conditions do not allow access to the site at this time. “Our friend, who loved the mountains so much and who lived to climb and enjoy them, stayed there.”
Pedro Hauck, who is also a mountaineer, has known Delvaux for about 15 years. “Marcelo was one of the most experienced mountaineers in Brazil. He was trained as a mountain guide by EPGAMT, which is a mountain guide school in Mendoza, Argentina,” he says. “He came to Peru quite frequently, every year.”
“He was famous for following his own footsteps,” the friend said. “Marcelo just climbed mountains and for him the more unknown, the better.”
According to Hauck, Delvaux was in Bolivia with his girlfriend, fellow mountaineer Julieta Ferreri, before traveling to Peru. The Argentinean woman returned to her home country because she was moving house. Delvaux then headed to Bolivia to climb one of the sub-summits of Nevado Coropuna alone, something he was already used to doing.
On June 25, he reached the base of the volcano and began his ascent via a route to the southwest, in a glacier-covered area. He reached an altitude of 4,880 meters and set up camp. He stayed there for two days, June 26 and 27, according to data from a GPS he was using.
On the 28th, the climber climbed to an altitude of 6,800 meters and then returned to camp. “We think that, since this altitude was the same one at which he disappeared, he encountered a large obstacle there,” says Hauck.
Stagnant GPS signal raised alarm for family and friends
On June 30, Delvaux left his camp again and began climbing the mountain at 3 a.m. He reached the top at 2:57 p.m. and soon began descending. “We saw on the GPS that, about 30 or 40 minutes later, the signal stopped. He hasn’t moved since then,” says his friend.
The GPS carried by Delvaux had an SOS button that, when pressed, sent an alert to a central station that decided on a rescue request. The device also allowed messages to be sent to this central station via satellite signal. However, at no time did the climber press the button or ask for any kind of help.
On July 3, Delvaux’s family called for help. However, the Peruvian police team had difficulty climbing the mountain. “The police were not acclimatized to climbing the mountain. On a high-altitude mountain like Coropuna, you need to climb slowly to get your body used to the low-pressure, thin-air conditions,” explains Hauck.
“It’s also not possible for a helicopter to land at such a high altitude, because the air is so thin that it can’t sustain itself,” says the friend. He then suggested to the family that they hire a team of mountaineers who were already in the region and, therefore, already acclimatized. That way, they would be able to climb more quickly.
Empty camp and equipment in front of the crevasse
The group of guides began climbing Coropuna in search of Delvaux on Friday the 5th. That same day, in the afternoon, they found the camp empty. “We were already preparing for the worst. Because that meant he hadn’t returned,” says Hauck.
On Saturday, the group continued the climb to 6,800 meters and found two tracking devices (equipment similar to a stick, used to support oneself while walking in the snow) stuck in the ice, in front of a very deep ice crevasse, at the altitude where Marcelo’s GPS had been stable since the 30th.
“This crevasse (technical name for crack) was almost completely covered. Only in front of Marcelo’s poles was there a very large opening, with all the signs that Marcelo had fallen in there,” says the friend. “The crevasse was so deep that it was not possible to see Marcelo’s body inside.”
The theory of his family and friends is that, on the way up the volcano, the climber found the crack in the ice and planted his tracking devices next to it to indicate a safe place to pass through. On the way down, he may have tried to jump over the crack and, at that moment, the edge gave way, causing him to fall into the hole.
Rescuers were unable to enter the crevasse because snow conditions are too dangerous at the moment. “There is powder snow on the outside of the crevasse, with no support for them to anchor themselves and rappel into the crevasse,” Hauck said.
The family and the friend believe that Delvaux is dead, given the length of time he has been missing, the size of the fall he suffered and the weather conditions at the location. “There is no chance that Marcelo survived. In fact, because he did not call for help, we believe that the fall was already fatal,” says the friend.
“Our friend, who loved the mountains so much and who lived to climb and enjoy them, stayed there,” Hauck concludes about Delvaux’s supposed death.
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