German mountaineers missing in the French Alps after ice block falls August 7, 2024
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Aug 6, 2024
- 2 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
German mountaineers missing in the French Alps after ice block falls
Two German mountaineers were missing on Tuesday after a giant block of ice broke off from a glacier on Mont Blanc in the French Alps, authorities said.
On Monday, a French climber died and four people were injured after the huge spire of ice - known as a serac - collapsed.
The two German climbers, both in their 30s, were declared missing.
Rescue services found an ice pick on the edge of a crevasse, which led investigators to believe that they were swept away by an avalanche triggered by the falling block of ice, said Jean Ailhaud, deputy prosecutor for the Alpine town of Bonneville.
It was too risky for the search teams to descend into the crevasse because of the snow that had accumulated there, he told AFP.
The search was called off on Monday due to the large size of the crash site and the risk of further avalanches.
The two Germans had taken shelter for the night in a mountain hut on the north face of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe when the ridge broke loose from the glacier in the early hours of Monday morning at an altitude of 4,100 meters.
Around 15 people were climbing the mountain at the time.
A rescue team with helicopters and search dogs looked for survivors. They found the body of a 57-year-old Frenchman. A man and a woman in their 40s, also French, were taken to hospital.
A 58-year-old Spaniard and his teenage son suffered fractures when they were hit by falling ice.
All the other climbers present at the time of the accident have been accounted for, except the two Germans, the emergency services said.
Climate change has been blamed for rockfalls in the French Alps because permafrost - ice found all year round at high altitudes - binds giant slabs of rock together.
The retreat of the glaciers, which are melting under the effect of higher temperatures, is also leaving the peaks more vulnerable.
mlb/jh/ah/tw
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