4 Italian Climbers Die on Mont Blanc
Tragedy has struck Mont Blanc again. Just a week after the tragic accident that killed young British climbers Rob Gauntlett and James Atkinson on Mont Blanc du Tacul, four Italian climbers tumbled 3,280 feet down the Aiguille du Midi on Saturday night. Details are still very sketchy but what is known is that the victims, all between 35 and 40 years old, were skilled mountaineers from the Torino area of northern Italy. The four badly damaged bodies were recovered by French rescuers on Sunday morning and taken to Chamonix at the mountain base.
The Mont Blanc massif, straddling the border between France and Italy, reaches a height of 15,781 feet (4,810 meters) atop Mont Blanc. The massif is extremely popular with mountaineers for its superb snow and ice climbs as well as stellar routes up its granite faces. It’s also extremely dangerous. In 2008 alone, 58 climbers died on Mont Blanc’s slopes and another 10 went missing and were never recovered.
Photograph above: The Aiguille du Midi was the scene of a tragedy on Saturday night.
Photograph courtesy Michel Caplain
Comments
Another huge accident. I climbed Mont Blanc in 1995 and saw how dangerous it is. There are so many climbers and so many dangers. My condolences to the families of the lost climbers.
One of the climbers was my good friend Stefano…I will miss him dearly.