Avalanche
Industry News
An ice and snow avalanche buried and killed 3 mountaineers near the summit of 15,771′ Mont Blanc in France last Tuesday, August 16th, 2016.
Oddly, rescuers weren’t notified of the missing climbers until 36 hours after the accident occurred.
The French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that there will be a thorough investigation. ย
By the time rescuers reached the bodies of the missing climbers, chain saws and a backhoe had to be used to extract the bodies, according to the mountain rescue chief on Thursday.
The bodies of two women,ย a 32-year-old Slovakian and a 33-year-old Polish-Briton, were located on Wednesday night. ย The body of their 50-year-old Greman guide was found on Thursday morning, according to Lieutenant Colonel ย Stephan Bozon, head of mountain rescue team in Chamonix, France.
These 3 mountaineers were climbing 13,450′ Mont Maudit, one of Mont Blanc’s summits in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday morning when a serac broke off above them and splintered creating an ice & snow avalanche that swept them them 500-feet down the mountain to their deaths.
A statement by theFrench Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that 16 gendarmes, 2 dogs, and a helicopter were used to find the avalanche victims and recover their bodies.
A New Zealand guide was killed by an avalanche in this same zone on June 20th, 2016.
Theย French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuveย stated that 8 people have been killed in the French Alps since August 6th, 2016.
