“In the name of mountain solidarity”.
A team of French rescuers flies this Friday, direction Nepal, in an attempt to find the bodies of three young climbers swept away by an avalanche at the end of October.
The 14-person team is made up of gendarmes, experts, a doctor, a mountain guide and an avalanche dog.
They take with them some 600 kg of material.
"We do not know the consistency of the snow that we are going to encounter, it can be extremely hard", says Major Yann Gérome, first-aid gendarme at the PGHM of Haute-Savoie, "we really took everything to be able to deal with n ' any eventuality.
"
Read alsoNepal: research resumes to find the three missing French climbers
Rescuers have spent the last few days in preparations, packing avalanche bags, ropes, probes and poles to explore and mark the area, and reviewing images of the area on a large screen.
“We have an 80% chance of finding them,” says Major Yann Gérome, “the only factor, we will say unknown, is the thickness of the snowpack that will determine the result of our research”, “but we really overmotivated ”.
Carried away by an avalanche at the end of October, the three mountaineers Louis Pachoud, Gabriel Miloche and Thomas Arfi, aged 27 to 34, had undertaken the ascent of the west face of Mingbo Eiger (6,070 m above sea level).