It would take a miracle for a happy outcome. An ice climber disappeared Thursday in an avalanche, followed by two others, at around 2,000 m altitude on the ice falls of the Cirque de Gavarnie, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, we learned from the high-level gendarmerie platoon. -mountain (PGHM).
At midday, the young man, aged 31 and from Saint-Geours-de-Maremne in the Landes, “unscrewed for a hundred meters because he was destabilized by a first avalanche (…) He is probably dead,” PGHM commander Jean-Marc Bougy told AFP.
Three other ice climbers safe and sound
Another avalanche followed, burying two of the three rescuers, including a dog handler, dispatched to the scene by helicopter. They managed to extricate themselves from the pile of snow and take shelter before the third.
The climbing companion of the Landes ice climber “must only have escaped because the avalanche passed behind his back”. He was then rescued by rescuers, along with two Spaniards from a separate rope.
“The search has been suspended due to the dangerous snow conditions”, with heavy snowfall expected beyond 1,200 m, and will resume as soon as possible to recover the body, said the commander of the PGHM.
