UKC

Sad news. People have died on the Aiguille d'Argentiere

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28771530

In reply to goose299: Terrible news, RIP

In reply to goatee:
more here (in french) http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/faits-divers/20140813.OBS6210/5-alpinistes-r...

Seems it was a party from UCPA, a group of students plus their guide.

In reply to goose299:

More details in the local paper: http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2014/08/13/chamonix-les-six-membres-...

Quickly translated:

The UCPA group (5 climbers and their experienced guide with a good knowledge of the terrain/route) had left the Argentière hut at 4am on Tuesday to climb the Aiguille d'Argentière via Flèche Rousse.
At 5pm the hut tenants called the PGHM and asked for a helicopter reconnaissance. Due to a thunderstorm, the search was postponed to the following morning. Bodies were then found and recovered.
Owing to the heavy snowfalls of the past few days, the hut guardians think the accident may have been caused by a wind slab avalanche.
An investigation in under way.

In reply to goose299:

Confirmation got through that no avalanche occurred. Investigators are still puzzled though.
The 6 victims died after a 250m fall. There were 3 parties of 2. The guide was with the woman whose body was eventually found in a crevasse later. However investigators are wondering why she was unroped.

In reply to goose299:

Since the bodies were found between 3500m and 3700m on the glacier du Milieu, the accident must have occurred at the start of the descent in the steepest part above the bergschrund. My guess is that the party who left the summit last fell and hit the two others who were unable to self-arrest. A chain reaction?

In reply to Ken_Chamonix:

I recall thinking the last time I descended of the Aiguille d'Argentierre that the start of the descent was pretty full-on for a low-grade route, and that if someone fell, there is precious little that the rest of their party could do about it.

Just reinforces the point that "easy" does not mean the same as safe.

In reply to Simon4:

Here is a nice pic looking down at the start of the descent. I must say it didn't seem too steep.https://scontent-b-mad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/61998_1407309693031...

In reply to goatee:

Well I agree that doesn't look too bad, but it looks as though it steepens quite a lot below that. Also their is a lot of snow in your picture which will tend to make it look less serious (and will MOSTLY be so).

It is a while since I came down it, just going on memory which seemed to agree with the explanation suggested by Ken for why so many parties could be hit by catastrophe.

In reply to Simon4:

Ofcourse if the snow in that pic transformed to neve that slope would be plenty steep enough for a slip to turn in to a catastrophe.

In reply to goose299:

It may be that the guide un-roped his partner to execute a rescue. A few years ago round the cosmiques hut we saw a guided a party fall on an iced up slope and the guide who was roped into a smaller group unroped straight away (after telling the rest of the party to stay exactly where they were) to execute a rescue for the remaining climbers by setting up ropes for them and then getting down to the injured climbers quickly.

In reply to Simon4:

You're right. It's just like Mont Blanc (normal route of course). It's easy but not safe...

In reply to CurlyStevo:

45° in the steepest part of the slope.