A Czech couple of mountaineers missing for three days was found dead Thursday at the bottom of a crevasse of the Glacier Blanc in the Écrins Massif (Hautes-Alpes), announced the Gap prosecutor's office.
“We found ice axes and then sticks that belonged to the couple last night near a crevasse,” Gap public prosecutor Florent Crouhy told AFP, confirming information from the
Dauphiné Libéré
.
Significant crevasses due to the heat and the melting of the glacier
“This morning, they were pulled out of this crevasse which is about thirty meters deep by the rescuers of the Briançon PGHM.
They must have slipped in their ascent, given their equipment, since they were roped to each other, ”he explained.
A judicial investigation for worrying disappearance was opened by the Gap prosecutor's office and entrusted to the gendarmes of L'Argentière-la-Bessée and the PGHM of Briançon when their disappearance was reported by the consular authorities, three days ago, indicates M Crouhy.
“But we date the accident to several days,” he said.
"They were quite well equipped but the conditions for going to the Barre des Écrins are really very difficult at the moment because the crevasses are much more numerous with the heat and the melting of the glacier", according to the prosecutor.
A mountaineer dies in front of his two brothers in the Ecrins massif
A skier is killed after a 200-meter fall in the Écrins massif
Miscellaneous facts
Mountaineer
Fall
Paca