Seven people were injured this Sunday, March 24 in the morning after a fall in the Pic Crémat sector, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, the Pierrefitte-Nestalas high mountain gendarmerie platoon told Le Parisien on Monday, confirming information from La Dispatch from the South.
Cramponed and equipped with ice axes, the hikers were divided into three teams.
But when one of them unscrewed, it dragged the other two with it.
The seven hikers, mostly men, alerted the emergency services themselves in the morning, after falling in a snow corridor on a drop of around 200 m, the gendarmes said.
The incident took place near the Crémat peak, located around ten kilometers from the Midi de Bigorre peak.
Fractures to deplore for most of the victims
The victims are between 26 and 55 years old, several are in their thirties.
All of the injured had to be taken care of “because they were no longer able to move around themselves”, specify the gendarmes.
They suffer from “mild trauma”, namely fractures to the lower limbs.
No life-threatening injuries were reported, however the victims were treated in neighboring hospitals in Tarbes and Lourdes.
A snowboarder had already survived an avalanche in the Pic du Midi sector at the end of February when an avalanche suddenly triggered and swept him away.
After having descended 300 m, he ended up buried on Lake Oncet before being fortunately located by the emergency services, after ten minutes under a thick layer of snow.