Mont Blanc tragedy averted
The ascent of Mont Blanc is never an easy task and on Thursday evening, 21 Alpinists found themselves having to resort to extreme survival tactics, building igloos and snow holes as the bad weather closed in at 4000 metres and they lost their way to go.
Forecasters had predicted 'weather disturbances' on Thursday however none of the 21 Alpinists could have expected the next series events which began to unfold. Amateur alpinists of all nationalities: French, English, Polish and Czech found themselves caught in a 'white out', just north of the Dome du Gouter as the clouds descended and they could no longer see which route to follow. Amongst the 21 alpinists who were caught out, there was a father and son, and a friend of the son who had come down from Saint Germain les Corbeilles, near Paris to climb the mountain. Although the father was an experienced climber and had tackled Mont Blanc at least 10 times, the son and friend were making their first ascent, and it was additionally the first time that one of the boys had used crampons. They explained to Le Dauphine Libéré that they had tried to retrace their steps back to the refuge du Gouter but they found that it was not possible as their tracks had been covered by fresh snowfalls. They had then tried to follow some English climbers who had brought a compass and heard other climbers who were in a similar predicament.
British and Czech climbers decided to build two igloos whilst others created snow holes in which to shelter. As night fell, the PGHM (Pelton Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne) tried to launch a helicopter rescue but they were beaten by the cloud cover which had descended. As temperatures plummeted to -10 degrees with 80km/h winds, the boys and their father began to lose sensation in their extremities. It was 06.30hrs before the PGHM were able to rescue to the alpinistes. 18 of the 21 were rescued relatively unscathed after their night in igloos, however 3 were taken to hospital with hypothermia and frostbite on their toes. All were released from hospital the following day.
