Since Saturday there had been no news from the group, then the bitter surprise: 5 of the six ski mountaineers missing since Saturday in the Swiss Alps were found lifeless.

This was announced by the Valais cantonal police who are continuing their search for the last man. The team of rescuers on site is working tirelessly despite the bad weather conditions . The six ski mountaineers, all aged between 21 and 58, were part of the same family. Only one person, a woman, comes from the canton of Fribourg. According to reports in the local press, they are three brothers including a municipal administrator, their uncle, their cousin and the friend of one of the three brothers. Several of them were experienced mountaineers and some were training for a world-famous ski mountaineering race scheduled for April, the Patrouille des glaciers, whose route also passes along the Zermatt-Arolla route they were following.

The alarm was raised on Saturday afternoon around 4pm by a family member who was waiting for the group in Arolla , in the Val d'Hérens. A phone call made shortly afterwards, at 5.19pm, by one of the six missing people allowed them to be located in the Col de la Tete Blanche sector, at around 3,500 meters above sea level, just over half a kilometer as the crow flies from the border with Italy and the Aosta Valley. During the night between Saturday and Sunday, five Swiss rescuers attempted to reach the group on foot from Zermatt, but due to the terrible weather conditions and the danger of avalanches they had to give up. The Valle d'Aosta Alpine Rescue Service had also been alerted, in the hope that the weather conditions on the southern side would allow intervention by helicopter.

(Unioneonline/vf)