[Photo] Eltouristo/Wiki Commons
Seven climbers died in an avalanche on September 15 on one of the French Alps’ most popular mountaineering peaks. The slide, which occurred around 12 p.m. on 4015-meter Dome de Neige des Ecrins, left four Germans and three Czechs dead and another 36-year-old female German climber, the only survivor, with a broken leg. The names of the victims have yet to be released, but they were all men between ages 39 and 51. One of victims was a professional mountain guide, Liberation reports on an investigation from the French mountain police (PGHM).
Dome de Neige des Ecrins is a popular route for budding mountaineers and ski mountaineers in the Massif des Ecrins of the French Alps.
The wind-slab fracture measured approximately 250 meters across and one-meter deep, the French news source Le Dauphine Libere reports. Rainstorms over the weekend in the nearby town of Pelvoux, in southeastern France, came down as snow up in the peaks and that new snow formed slabs on the glacier’s hard surface. Conditions were “winter-like” in the area on the day of the accident, local police commander Christan Flagella told BBC News.
While there were clear to partly cloudy skies with light winds in the area on the day of the avalanche, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls, the deadly slab had already formed on the peak.
Six of the victims had stayed at the Refuge des Ecrins, located at 3172 meters on the mountain at the base of the route. Before the slide, the hut keeper advised the climbers not to attempt the mountain because of dangerous avalanche conditions, according to to the PGHM and regional investigation. A group of Spanish climbers heeded this advice and turned back from the climb.
The 2014-2015 season was the deadliest in Europe in five years. Thirty-nine people have died in avalanches in France alone this year, including six skiers in January and three in April in the same region as the recent slide, Telegraph reports.
[Update: The European Avalanche Warning Service (EAWS) has yet to make a full report on the accident. Keep an eye on its website for details after it has made a full investigation–Ed.]