Life imitates art
Posted on 05/01/2018 3:23:41 PM PDT by BBell
GENEVA — An unexpected snowstorm coupled with high winds killed four climbers in the Swiss Alps and left five others in critical condition early Monday after they became trapped overnight and couldn’t reach shelter, officials said.
A total of 14 hikers from France, Germany and Italy were left stranded in the Pigne d’Arolla region, police in southwestern Valais canton said. Authorities deployed seven helicopters as part of rescue efforts.
The climbers were caught off-guard by high winds, snow and bitter cold, and were forced to spend the night outdoors, Valais police spokesman Markus Rieder said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
What is it with the Europeans and not being prepared for inclement weather? Something to do with the cradle to grave socialism?
The dead are up to 6. Posted wrong article.
I’m surprised they would not be prepared for cold weather.
After all that conditioning, planning and pure hard work to get up that high. No thought given to what if they had to stay here for a while. Maybe that’s what a high risk taker does when they’re busy with their sport, they take yet another risk that the weather will hold up.
At that altitude you can’t always anticipate the onset of high winds. Weather forecasting has never been entirely accurate. What they needed was shelter and the winds and lowered visibility kept them from reaching it.
None of the dead are Swiss but a Swiss women is amongst those hospitalized.
Life imitates art
RIP.
Those storms come on fast and are brutal. It had been unseasonably warm. Terrible. And no visibility bc of the wind, but you are climbing on high mountains. People die like that a lot.
Wonder if their judgement was inherently flawed by the nonsense that they have come to believe.. Some might have thought late April, global warming, it won’t get too cold.
You described it very well. I went to a different story that included a photo of the actual storm. Visibility at the upper reaches of the mountains looks to be almost nonexistent.
Is that Clint Eastwood? What movie???
Yep, it’s Clint. The movie is “The Eiger Sanction.”
Good book, too.
To summarize, Clint is a secret agent who has to sanction a spy, but doesn’t know who it is. He is sent to join a risky climbing team, because his handler is sure that the party they are after is one of the climbing team members. The mountain is the Eiger, in Switzerland.
I’m not really spoiling it for you, because that’s clear in the first few minutes.
Enjoyable flick, IMHO.
Mountain climbing in the Alps is not the kind of camping I am into.
The Alps are dangerous.
Dang- they werent conditioned to make a snow cave and help keep each other alive?
At 10,000 ft. anything should be expected at any time of the year. I’ve seen horizontal winds whipping snow in July twice in the Rockies here in CO. Once at 8,000 ft. and once at 7,600 feet in the Estes Valley on the 4th of July.
I suspect conditions were considerably more miserable at 10k and above on those occasions.
God rest their souls...
Climbing in the Alps is not supposed to be a camping trip anyway. The Swiss Alpine club huts are where people overnight or seek emergency shelter. Climbing to the summit and back down is strictly a single day affair. I have hiked extensively in this exact location. Most climbers are competent and well prepared, with rescue insurance in case something goes wrong. A sudden storm that traps you on the mountain and prevents rescue flights can be a killer if you’re not carrying a bivy bag and extra clothes and food.
This isn’t the Himalayas or South America. Alpine climbers travel very light.
Even so use the Boy Scout motto. Be prepared! Light weight extreme weather blankets are cheap when compared to your life.
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