This story is now in the mainstream media in France, Switzerland, etc
A guide and his customer have been stuck on Mt-Blanc for 5 days now. Stuck at 4050m on Grandes-Jorasses, the weather prevents any helicopter intervention (heavy fog/clouds) and teams can't be sent up due to high avalanche risk following snowfalls. They've lost contact with them 2 days ago, mobile battery died but they managed to dig a snowhole. Temps at night -25c...
wow, that sounds tough. google translate version of the page
The intervention of a helicopter, which was to take off Monday to 6:30 of the police high mountain in Chamonix, had to be postponed. "There was no niche. For now, it's blocked by fog and clouds," said the commander Jean-Baptiste Estachy.
A reconnaissance flight over the Great Jorasses, where the two climbers are stuck, took place around 7:45, but did not work because of bad weather.
The sky is expected to remain cloudy all day at this altitude with "some temporary openings of clear sky," according to the Meteorological Institute, leaving hope for a possible rescue.
A press conference is scheduled with the rescue Monday to 14 hours for mayor of Courmayeur, Italy.
Four trials
Sunday, four times, Italian and French helicopters tried to go get the two climbers, the high mountain guide Sourzac French Olivier, 47, Charlotte Demetz and his client, an experienced mountaineer Paris 44.
But "the weather Himalayan" had blocked devices, according to the Italian mountain rescue. The guide and his client are blocked since Wednesday night at 4050 meters, near the tip Walker, the summit of the Grandes Jorasses. Telephone contact with them were interrupted Friday afternoon, the phone of Mr. Sourzac having no battery.
In recent conversations, the guide said he had managed to dig a hole in the snow under a ledge of ice. He was about Sunday night with his client to spend another night in blizzards and -25 degrees.
A team of eight guides from Chamonix and of which the brother of Mr. Sourzac, Bruno, sought to walk to the two climbers stranded. But because of weather conditions, they had to leave home to Boccalatte (2804 meters) and down into the valley, said the Italian rescuers Sunday.
Avalanche hazard
According to experts, it is impossible to climb the mountain to reach the guide and his client because of avalanche danger due to very recent fall from a very wet snow.
French side, it takes two days to very experienced climbers to the summit of the Grandes Jorasses its north face, "a vertical wall of 1200 meters of vertical, consisting of ice and snow," said the PGHM from Chamonix.
I was following through Swiss media, that thread on UKC is quite something. The rescue services went well above the call of duty, many times, to try to help those two people.
