Four fatal incidents raised alarms in the Alps. Seven climbers died while climbing 4000 meter peaks of three mountains located in SwissFrance and Italy, belonging to the longest mountain range in Europe. The tragedies occurred between this Friday and Saturday in the Gran Paradiso, the Matterhorn and Mont Blancand caused concern about the current rescue system.
The most serious accident occurred on Friday at the top of the mountain range Italian of 4061 metersin the Aosta Valley. Three climbers fell 400 meters from the north face and died. They were identified as Sergio Martinelli, Maicol Zenatti and Antonio Sardano.
The three Italians were friends, united by their passion for the mountains, the local media reported. Il Gazzettino. Martinelli was 29 years oldwas an economist and data analyst and a native of Trento. Zenetti, meanwhile, was 39, he was specialist in computing and digital solutions developer and came from Brentonico, while Sardano was 49 and worked in Trentino Emergenzathe provincial emergency response agency.
The director of the Aosta Valley mountain rescue team, Paolo Comune, explained that they believe the accident occurred around noon, but that it was only known at night when the families of the deceased They reported that they had not heard from them hours ago..
“We found them at the foot of the north face, so it is presumed that the cause was a slip by one of the climbers, which dragged the others”, he said, as reported by the Italian media.
Comune stressed that they are advanced in the season, and that, due to low snowfallexcursions should be planned as If it were mid or late July.
The next tragedy occurred on Saturday morning, when two climbers died upon being reached by a snowfall while climbing Mont Maudit4465 meters, in French territory of the Mont Blanc massif. It is about two French brothers aged 24 and 25.
The fall was on the Kuffner Ridge, a route that requires several hours of ascent and reaches between 3,700 and 4,400 meters of altitude. The High Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon helicopter arrived around 5 in the morning (local time) after be warned by a Slovak guidethe media reported France 3. They considered that the tragedy could have been unleashed by a rockfall.
Later, a French climber fell from the Brenva spur, on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, at a height of 1000 meters. Italian rescuers were the ones who rescued his body. He was accompanied by a 37-year-old French woman, who was unharmed but she was unable to descend on her own and was transported by helicopter.
Almost simultaneously, another tragedy occurred on the Matterhorn, when a French climber suffered a sudden fallfor reasons still unknown, at Pic Tyndall. His climbing partner, who had stayed at the Capanna Carrel refuge due to fatigue, witnessed the fall along with a mountain guide who raised the alarm.
With information from ANSA
