bad luck
Five ski tourers die in a snowstorm in Switzerland
Mountain rescuers and helicopters prepare to depart for Tête Blanche mountain in the Swiss Alps. photo
© -/Canton Police Valais/Keystone/dpa
A ski tour has turned into a tragedy for a family in Switzerland. Five people died in the bad weather. Was a stage race the motive for the deadly adventure?
There is speculation in the media that the six men, aged 21 to 58, wanted to prepare for the “Patrouille des Glaciers”, the largest ski mountaineering race, which runs over around 58 kilometers from Zermatt to Verbier. The bodies were found on the route of the first stages.
The group had been on the ski touring route between Zermatt and Arolla since Saturday morning. Since she did not arrive at her destination, a concerned relative raised the alarm. Late Saturday afternoon, one of the missing people managed to contact the police via cell phone. The authorities said that this made it possible to locate the group. But stormy weather and the risk of avalanches made it difficult for rescue workers to respond.
Very bad weather conditions
“Despite storms and snowfall and at night, an Air Zermatt helicopter took off to fly five rescue specialists from Zermatt as far as possible into the area. However, the attempt to rescue the six alpinists by land had to be canceled due to the very bad weather conditions and the The risks associated with this must be aborted,” said Air Zermatt.
According to information from the newspaper “Le Nouvelliste”, all of the dead belong to a family from the Swiss canton of Valais. It is said to be three brothers, her uncle and her cousin.
The victims did “everything they could to survive,” said a police spokesman. But the temperatures were extremely low. It remained unclear how experienced the ski tourers were and what equipment they had with them.
The Swiss “Tages-Anzeiger” quotes Anjan Truffer, professional mountaineer and rescue chief in Zermatt: “A strong storm with heavy rainfall was announced for Saturday. The meteorological conditions with avalanche level 4 were not suitable for such a tour.” A lot of snow fell in a short period of time.
According to Truffer, the ski tourers had tried to build a cave and protect themselves from the wind. The mountain rescuer believes that the incoming storm could have been fatal for the tour-goers. His conclusion: “The ski tourers have frozen to death, disorientated at altitude,” he says in the “Walliser Boten”. At an altitude of 3,500 meters it was probably around minus 15 degrees on Sunday night.
Cause of death still unclear
Every effort was made to find the missing people alive, the police said. According to the police, a total of eight helicopters and dozens of mountain rescuers were deployed. “The cooperation between the individual organizations worked well,” said the police spokesman.
The authorities’ cyber and IT specialists evaluated the data from the missing people’s cell phones. “These analyzes made it possible to confirm the mountaineers’ likely whereabouts in the mountain,” the police said on Monday.
According to official information, the cause of death of the five tourers who have now been found is not yet clear. For now it remains unclear whether an avalanche led to the death of the five people or whether they froze to death. The public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the exact circumstances of the events, said Attorney General Béatrice Pilloud.
In memory of the victims on Platform X (formerly Tweitter), Swiss Federal President Viola Amherd wrote: “Our mountains have once again shown how dangerous they can be.”