Third ice climbing accident in a week

A third ice climbing accident in the Haute-Savoie in a week has cost the lives of two climbers in the early afternoon in the ice falls at Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval. The climbers were on the Lyre when they were hit by an avalanche of snow and ice probably triggered by the warm conditions.

The configuration of the site channels avalanche debris from above, it appears that part of the upper of the cone, in full sunlight, detached in the warm conditions. The rescue services have warned climbers of the dangers of the temperature inversion currently installed in the Alps which means temperatures can be cold in the valleys but much warmer higher up.

Two local guides, Luc Avogadro and Eric Lazard were killed by falling ice climbing in the same sector last week. Mr Avogadro had opened the Lyre direct in 2002. Another guide was seriously injured when he was hit by ice in Chamonix.

Bruno Sourzac, high mountain guide witnessed this earlier incident. On the website http://camptocamp.org/ he described hearing the sounds of an avalanche and the aerosol covering the rucksacks of his colleagues. He didn’t see an avalanche from above and believed the cause was ice dislodged by the climbers that purged the ledge in the first third of the route. He described the conditions as “good, not too cold but not too warm without any thaw”.

Bruno believes that the formation of ice falls has been disturbed by the heavy snowfall at the start of the winter with a lot of free space between the ice and rock face. He has also noted fragility in the ice itself and warns climbers to “be careful”.

Rob Gauntlett, youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest and his climbing partner have been killed after falling on the couloir Gervasutti early yesterday morning. The couloir is 800m long and inclined around 50 degrees. The climbers were in the upper part of the couloir, it appears the lead lost his footings knocking the second climber off the face.