Argonath RPG - A World of its own
Argonath RPG Community => Speakerbox => World and local news => Topic started by: Reece on March 17, 2013, 01:40:12 pm
-
A frantic father made a desperate call to emergency services after his 12-year-old son plunged down a French mountain before the line went dead as he fell to his own death trying to rescue him.
The pair, who have yet to be named, were found dead after tumbling 'hundreds of feet' in the Chamonix Valley in the Alps.
It appears the father, 48, tragically fell as he called the emergency services while trying to get to his stricken son.
He called rescuers on his mobile phone at about 3pm on Saturday to report his son missing.
‘The father said that the boy had fallen and he could not see him any more,’ said a local police spokesman.
‘The call was then cut off and the caller could not be heard anymore.’
Calls were made to police in Buckinghamshire, where the pair are thought to have come from, and then a search was launched.
Helicopters and specialist police officers were used in the search, but the bodies of the pair were found at 7.40am on Sunday.
Patrice Ribes, of the high mountain police in Chamonix, confirmed the deaths, and that they appeared to have been caused by a ‘fall of several hundred meters’.
Captain Ribes said his officers were liaising with the British authorities over the tragedy.
A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: 'We are aware of the deaths of two British nationals in the French Alps and we are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time.'
The pair set off on Saturday morning to visit an area referred to by mountaineers as ‘The Junction’, in the Bossons range of the Chamonix Valley.
The father and son are thought to have reached a high altitude by taking the chair lift from Bossons village to the approaches of the Bossons Glacier, at 1400m.
From there, they are thought to have set off on the well-known La Jonction (Junction) hike, which is hugely popular with tourists, especially in the summer months.
La Jonction is a rocky spur from which hikers can look out towards the Bossons and Taconnaz glaciers. It was is on the route taken by the Frenchmen who first ascended Mont Blanc in 1786.
The slopes around Mont Blanc, the highest peak in western Europe, are notoriously dangerous, with scores of mountaineers, skiers and hikers dying on them every year.
Not only is the fabled ‘White Mountain’ 15,780 feet high, but the climbs around it are some of the most technically difficult in the world.
Despite this, it is often mistakenly claimed that people can enjoy an easy stroll up the slopes.
Hundreds set off on paths every day without ice axes or crampons, let alone other basic equipment like extra food supplies and tents.
Many of the 20,000-plus people who attempt to reach the summit each year are inexperienced or completely novice climbers.
Earlier this month no less than 10 people – including mountaineers and off-piste skiers – died in the Mont Blanc area.