Three climbers killed on Mont Blanc
Very early Thursday morning, Armand Pédat, a guide from La Compagnie de Megève, left the Refuge du Goûter with his two clients and headed for the summit of Mont Blanc via the “Voie Royale”. At 2am, when they started their ascent the weather was perfect, both clients were locals and so in good shape and they were all kitted out with the obligatory ropes, crampons and ice axes. All went well and the group made the summit around 7am. Météo France had predicted deterioration in the weather later on in the afternoon but it came in much sooner than expected and the climbers rapidly found themselves swathed in cloud and 60km/h winds soon after summiting. Without doubt, they would have quickly retraced their steps back to the refuge in very poor visibility but it appears they lost their way at around 4400m, before reaching the Vallot Shelter.
According to Stéphane Bozon, captain of the Peloton de gendarmerie de la haut montagne (PGHM), they branched out too far right and found themselves very close to the large sloping descent around Le Grand Plateau. What happened next is a classic tragedy; one of the group lost their footing and fell, the climber roped closest to them was unable to curb their fall in time and as a result the third member was dragged down by the weight of the first two.
It was the husband of one of the clients that alerted the PGHM at around 8.30pm on Thursday evening, when his wife and son failed to return home. However, as a result of the bad weather, it wasn't possible to conduct a search by helicopter. It was only when questioning the guardian of the Refuge du Goûter who explained that the group hadn't returned to the refuge to settle their bill, that the rescue services were able to pinpoint their search to the upper levels of Mont Blanc. At 5.30am on Friday morning the helicopter was finally able to take off and the bodies of the three alpinists were found 15 minutes later on the Grand Plateau. They had fallen 300m.
Photo Credit: Sean Potts (Summits)
