A climber from Île-de-France died on Friday July 30 in the early morning on the north face of Mont-Blanc, despite multiple attempts to rescue rescuers at an altitude of 4000 meters, during the night and in the midst of a storm.
Read also:
In the middle of summer, an invincible winter
, by Virginie Troussier: tragedy at the top of Mont-Blanc
Thursday evening, the soldiers of the Chamonix high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM) are called upon from all sides, when they receive a new call for help, tells AFP Commander André-Vianney Espinasse.
It is 6:50 p.m., a forty-something is alone near the Mont-Blanc summit.
He lost track, stuck at an altitude of 4,800 meters by "
the storm, the wind, the cold
", these same impossible weather conditions which already immobilize a team of rescuers with a helicopter.
A second aircraft then tries to climb other gendarmes, but the wind forces the pilot to drop them low, at 3200 meters, forcing them to embark on a perilous night ascent.
Cardiac arrest of the climber
At 2:00 a.m., after reaching the Gouter refuge and waiting for a lull, they set out to meet the mountaineer, in the dark, on the glaciers, facing a wind of 80 km / h and while 'they haven't heard from the man since 1:30. They meet him around 4:10 am at the Grand Plateau, a “
deadly
”
zone
where he had been able to descend, at an altitude of 4000 meters, under seracs which threaten to drop their tons of ice.
There, the three rescuers make a "
hot spot
" around him to delay the severe hypothermia of the mountaineer in distress.
But “
at 5.30 am, still in a terrible wind, the climber went into cardiac arrest
,” continues Commander Espinasse, confirming a story already published by the regional daily Le Dauphiné Libéré.
At the same time, a new attempt "
to extract the impossible
", aiming to simply carry the victim by cable with his harness, again fails in the helicopter, because there is too much wind.
“
At the end of this abortive attempt, at 6.15 am, I made the decision to tell my rescuers to leave this extremely dangerous area, leaving the mountaineer there
,” continues the officer.
"
Solo in the high mountains is really to be avoided"
It will finally be necessary to wait for the intervention of an Italian rescue helicopter, coming from the other side of the massif, to "
tear the body from the mountain
" and entrust it to the funeral directors.
"
Last night, we struggled, but there was no miracle
", concludes André-Vianney Espinasse, who wishes to recall that "
solo in the high mountains is really to be avoided, for all the dangers objectives that it contains.
"
Read also: From the Col des Aravis to the rocks of Lapiaz, a hike with Mont-Blanc in the background
His men had already intervened Thursday afternoon for the fatal fall, while hiking, of a 65-year-old man near the Bossons glacier.