The heavy toll of weekend mountain accidents is three deaths:
a 14-year-old boy from the province of Varese
died in Switzerland, and two peers are hospitalized in serious condition;
while
two women died, one in Valle d'Aosta, the other in Alto Adige
.
The boy was on a trip with a group in the Capanna Scaletta area, in the municipality of Blenio, in the Canton of Ticino.
According to an initial reconstruction, he fell while walking on a path, slipping for about 100 meters and overwhelming another 14-year-old, who was part of the same group, also living in the province of Varese.
A Swiss peer, who was not part of the party, tried to help the two boys and he too crashed.
The two injured young people were transported by helicopter to the Lugano hospital, and are hospitalized in serious condition.
A forty-year-old hiker, Paola Gallo Balma
from Rivarolo Canavese (Turin), died in Val d'Ayas: she fell from a rocky ridge in the Corno Bussola area, above Estoul (Brusson).
The "non-return" alarm went off last night and the rescue teams started their searches.
Her body was spotted and recovered on Sunday morning during a helicopter flight by the Aosta Valley Mountain Rescue.
The alarm was raised last night by a friend who did not see her return to the valley after the excursion on the Corno Bussola: it is a not particularly demanding trip but yesterday in the area there were low clouds that could have made difficult to identify the path.
Born in 1982, Paola Gallo Balma was a well-
known photographer
and had won numerous awards.
She graduated in architecture from the Turin Polytechnic.
She self-taught, after a series of projects and initiatives at the local level, in November 2019 she left for Argentina, traveling in Patagonia between Buenos Aires and Bahia Blanca up to Ushuaia.
On his return he had participated in numerous photographic competitions with the project "Il gaucho Pol" resulting, among other awards, first classified at the Mifa 2021 portfolio category, selected at the Milan Photofestival with the exhibition at Palazzo Pirola and first prize at 6 / o Portfolio sul Po, tenth stage of Portfolio Italia.
In the last two years, between one move and another for work, she had lived in Liguria, in the Cinque Terre.
The other victim is
a 42-year-old mountaineer
from the Czech Republic who lost her life on Sunday morning while climbing the Ortles.
Shortly after dawn, the woman was climbing towards the summit, which is located at 3,905 meters above sea level, when near the Forcella Coston she lost her balance inside and fell into the void for a hundred meters.
The alarm was raised by a climbing partner.
The mountain rescue and the Pelikan helicopter rescue intervened on the spot, but the mountaineer had suffered very serious injuries in the fall, dying instantly.