Mountain climbers trigger an avalanche – and fall into the depths

A rope team of eight mountaineers falls during an Alpine tour through the Monte Rosa area when they dislodge a snow cornice. One man dies.

Cervinia – Monte Rosa is one of the most fascinating mountains in the Alps. At 4,634 metres, the peak, which straddles the Swiss-Italian border, is the second highest in the high mountains and the highest point in Switzerland. The mountain massif in the Valais Alps near the Matterhorn also includes the twin peaks Castor (4,225 metres) and Pollux (4,089 metres).

Alpine mountaineer has accident in the Italian Monte Rosa massif

The peaks are among the ten four-thousand-meter peaks of the “Spaghetti Tour”, a five or six-day mountaineering tour in the Monte Rosa massif. The technically mostly not difficult peaks are a paradise for summit collectors, say mountain fans. In recent weeks, several groups of mountaineers have been there, mostly accompanied by mountain guides, reports ildolomiti.it.

Hiking group from Spain apparently did not notice snow cornice – and fell with it

On Monday (September 9th) a rope team of eight mountaineers reached the Colle del Felik (4061 metres), a hill between Castor and Lyskamm (4527 metres). There was thick fog there. Due to the poor visibility, the mountaineers probably overlooked a snow cornice – an overhang of snow blown in from the wind. After the change in the weather on Sunday (September 8th), there was a lot of snow on the summits in windy conditions – ideal conditions for snow drifts.

The group stepped on the overhang, which broke off under the weight of the climbers, causing an avalanche to fall and dragging them down with it. Their emergency call to the Aosta Valley mountain rescue service was received in the afternoon. They initially assumed that an avalanche had swept the climbers away from above. However, when they arrived on site, the rescuers discovered that the accident had occurred in a different way.

Helicopters cannot fly to the accident site due to clouds at the summit

The eight climbers, according to initial information from ildolomiti.it from Spain, were descending from the summit of Castor. The group fell 200 meters. One of the climbers died instantly. The mountain rescue team had to climb on foot to a height of 3900 meters because visibility was too poor for helicopter flights at that high altitude. The dead man was recovered there. The injured were taken on stretchers to lower altitudes to the Vittorio Sella refuge (2584 meters), which was below the clouds, so that helicopters could fly them to the hospital in Aosta.

The deployment coincides with a major search operation on Mont Blanc on the border between France and Italy, where four mountaineers are currently missing.

Just a few days ago, we saw on Mont Blanc how deadly the four-thousand-meter peaks of the Alps can be: a tourist fell in the “corridor of death” and died. A falling block of ice was the downfall of three mountain climbers in July. And a mountain climber who wanted to raise money for children with cancer also fell to his death on Mont Blanc in July. On the Matterhorn, three hikers fell 1,000 meters and died.