As of: March 12, 2024, 12:38 p.m
By: Julia Hanigk
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A deadly storm in the Alps turns a ski touring trip into a disaster.
Five people die and one person remains missing.
Given the weather forecast, shouldn't they have started at all?
Zermatt – A ski tour ended tragically for six Swiss on March 9th.
The group set off from Zermatt on the Haute Route to Arolla VS.
At around 5 p.m. they made an emergency call because they had been caught in a storm.
On March 11, the Valais cantonal police announced the sad news: five bodies were recovered near the 3,706 meter high Tête Blanche.
A sixth person is still missing.
Ski tourers probably all belonged to the same family
According to
Le Nouvelliste,
the group probably consisted of family members.
All five deceased ski tourers came from the Swiss canton of Valais - three brothers, their uncle and their cousin.
The identity of the sixth person remains unclear.
According to the report, the ages of the deceased ranged from 21 to 58 years.
The
Blick
newspaper reported that among the victims was a well-known local councilor who had only taken office two weeks ago.
He was only 30 years old.
An officer from the Valais cantonal police who had already taken part in the “Patrouille des Glaciers” race was also apparently among the casualties.
Ski tourers set off despite bad weather forecast
The group was surprised by an approaching storm and therefore tried to protect themselves from the wind by building snow caves.
This was reported by the rescue chief in Zermatt.
Zermatt is one of the most popular ski areas.
The victims “did everything they could to survive,” said a police spokesman.
It was initially unclear what equipment the ski tourers had with them.
According to Meteo News,
not only very strong winds, but even hurricane gusts were announced
for March 9th - with a temperature of minus 15 degrees.
Conditions that also made the work of rescue workers more difficult.
The search for the missing person continues.
© Valais Cantonal Police
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Anjan Truffer, the head of rescue at the Zermatt mountain rescue service, made a clear statement about the situation.
“It is negligent to undertake such tours in this weather forecast,” he told
Blick
.
He told
the
Swiss Tages-Anzeiger : “A strong storm with heavy rainfall was announced for Saturday.
The meteorological conditions with avalanche level four were not suitable for such a tour.” A lot of snow had fallen within a short period of time.
Negligent or still okay?
Mountain guides discuss weather conditions
A Valais mountain guide added to
Blick
: “The alpinists completely underestimated the weather conditions.
The wind in particular can develop enormous power.” He couldn’t understand why the ski tourers continued despite the bad weather.
“You have no chance against the conditions in the mountains, the only solution is to retreat” and “That’s a mystery to me,” he said.
However, there were also voices that the ski tourers could understand.
“The fact that the speed is around 120 km/h at the summit is not an argument for me not to do the climb,” another mountain guide assessed the situation at
Blick
.
Even if the weather forecast is not the best, you can still try a tour.
You just shouldn't miss the right turning point if you have to stop, he explained.
Sixth person remains missing - search continues
Meanwhile, the search for the last missing person continues.
The rescue workers are in action with helicopters, search devices for avalanche victims, locating devices and sounding poles - unfortunately so far without success.
The exact cause of death of the tour goers is not yet known.
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.
“We want to understand the chronology of events that led to this drama,” she explained.
Terrible accidents happen again and again in the Swiss Alps.
A woman recently fell to her death while hiking with her child.
Any help also came too late for another skier after he was swept away by an avalanche.
(jh)
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at her own discretion. All information has been carefully checked. Find out more about our AI principles here.