Four hikers and two mountaineers died in the Swiss Alps and five others were hospitalized in serious condition, Monday 30th April, 2018.
Four hikers and two climbers have died in the Swiss Alps and five others were hospitalized in serious condition after being forced to spend the night in the cold and snow, announced Monday, April 30, 2018 the police.
Surprised by a storm
The four hikers were part of two groups comprising a total of 14 Italian, German and French skiers who were on a trek in the area of Pigne d’Arolla (3,796 m), when they were surprised by a storm , the police said. a statement.
The alert was given early Monday morning by the keeper of the cabin Vignettes, a refuge that skiers were expected to join Sunday.
Seven helicopters carrying several doctors and lifeguards found the hikers, many of whom were hypothermic and one already dead, probably as a result of a fall, the police said.
Transported to different hospitals in Valais and other cantons, three people have not survived and five others are still in serious condition. Other hikers suffer from mild hypothermia and their lives are not in danger.
A night at high altitude
According to the first elements of the investigation, a group of 10 hikers including a guide and another group of four skiers left Sunday the hut of Ten, located at 2,928 meters with the intention of joining that of Vignettes (3,157 m ), by the route of “Serpentine”.
But along the way, hikers were surprised by the storm in the area of Pigne d’Arolla and were forced to spend the night there at an altitude of 3,270 m.
Police said the victims had not yet been identified.
A little further east, on the edge of the Valais and Bern cantons, two young Swiss mountaineers were surprised by the bad weather as they climbed the Mönch region.
The signal of their disappearance had been given Sunday evening, but because of the bad weather conditions, the research had given nothing.
The bodies of the two mountaineers, aged 21 and 22, were finally found Monday morning, probably dead from exhaustion and cold, the police said.
Winter murderer
Several fatal accidents have occurred in the Swiss mountains since the beginning of the year due to avalanches or bad weather.
On April 7, the German billionaire Karl-Erivan Haub, 58, owner of the German distributor Tengelmann, disappeared in the Italian-Swiss Alps while training alone in the Klein Matterhorn, on the Italian-Swiss border, to participate in the Ice Patrol, an ultra-competitive race organized by the Swiss Army every two years.
His body was not found.
The 1st April, three Spaniards, one mountain guide, who were cross country skiing outside the ski area were killed in an avalanche.
In March, four skiers, including three French, had also been swept away by an avalanche in the Valais. And in February, several snowflakes caused the death of three skiers in southern Switzerland.
