The body of a British-Polish climber has been recovered with those of her two companions following an avalanche on Mont Maudit in the French Alps earlier this week that swept them to their deaths.
The woman, who has not yet been publicly identified, had been climbing with a Slovakian woman and a German mountain guide when they were killed by an ice cliff collapsing high on the 4,465-metre mountain.
The group was attempting the popular three mountains route to the summit of Mont Blanc and had left the Cosmiques mountain hut in the early hours of Tuesday when they were hit by substantial blocks of ice, causing them to fall 150 metres at around 5am.
Although the climb is regarded as generally straightforward in good conditions, part of the approach on the upper slopes of Mont Maudit – which translates as “Cursed Mountain” – is threatened by ice cliffs and has been the scene of previous fatal incidents.
The recovery of the bodies – which were dug out with chainsaws and a back hoe from the ice – was delayed because a nearby party had wrongly reported that no one had been caught in the ice fall.
The mountain rescue service said they had not been informed that the climbers were missing until Wednesday evening. Lt Col Stephane Bozon said the women’s bodies were found that night, while that of the guide was discovered early on Thursday.
According to Bozon the German guide, who has also not been named, lived and worked for part of the year in the French mountain town of Chamonix at the base of Mont Blanc.
Bozon said the avalanche had been reported at the time on Tuesday morning by members of a rescue team based in Italy.
“The witness statements we received from nearby climbers who had found themselves in the same area indicated no one had been seen caught in the avalanche.”
According to Bozon, the bodies of the two women were buried in ice between 50cm and a metre deep. Both had suffered serious head injuries that suggested they had been killed during the initial fall.
