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Lighthearted though this blog aims to be, you can't live in the shadow of the Mont Blanc and not pass comment on what has been one of the deadliest summers in recent years on the 'la dame blanche'.
The devastating avalanche which swept 8 eight sleeping climbers to their deaths last week was shocking enough to make the front pages across Europe and beyond, a sad piece of news made worse by the fact that retrieving the bodies is a hazardous, and for the moment impossible, task.
This particular group were hit in an area near the summit, having taken the 'Tacul' route to the top (accessible by cable car), rather than the more popular 'Goûter' track, which starts in St Gervais. It has to be said that neither is an 'easy' option, and the summer death toll is testament to the risks involved. But to get things in perspective, up to 200 climbers per day attempt to reach the summit from the high level "refuges" (mountain shacks to the uninitiated) on the 'Goûter side alone. So that's not counting the riskier and more challenging set-off points.
The notoriously unstable snow and ice in the Tacul area are no strangers to the local and national press. In 1987, a group of 60 climbers were delayed in the cable car on the way up, and as a result missed a huge avalanche in the area. If they'd left on time, they would have found themselves directly in its path.
Add to that local stories about 160 people who are stuck on the Mont Blanc in frozen graves, gradually relinquished as the glaciers melt, and you've added even more fuel to my desire to never join the brave who set their sights higher than most - and risk paying the ultimate price.
2 comments:
No, I won't be climbing those routes either.
...and yet I'll still go off-piste during spring in search of powder despite the risks...
Good point, me too. The irony is that powder skiing in spring is probably no less dangerous than driving your car, or undercooking a roast chicken!
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