Mont Blanc du Tacul claims 8
Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:07 pm
http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes ... _claims_8/
8/24/08
Lot of accidents happening this season (K2 claiming 11) over 100 deaths this year in the Alps (France, Swiss, Italy combined).
What struck me about this particular accident was two weeks ago i was descending down the exact route these climbers were ascending when the avalanche came. A friend and I had just finished climbing on the "triangle" of Tacul, the obvious rock/ice face on the left of the photo Climbing.com published. Many parties choose to rappel down from there (its about 350 meters) but we choose to continue up to the top and walk down the sloping snow field where the avalanche occurred.
We spent 5 nights camped up in this part of the Alps and quite honestly thought an accident would happen simply from the hordes of folks "climbing" Mont Blanc via the "Trois Mont du Mont Blanc" route which is where this accident happened. It starts up Mont Blanc du Tacul via the sloping snow field, on to Mont Maudit and finishes with the summit of Mont Blanc. Everyday of clear weather, there was essentially a clusterfuck of people hiking up this glacier slog roped together. Sometimes as many as 50 in a row with close to 100 total at times going up the section where the avalanche came from.
My buddy and I in front of Tacul:
8/24/08
Lot of accidents happening this season (K2 claiming 11) over 100 deaths this year in the Alps (France, Swiss, Italy combined).
What struck me about this particular accident was two weeks ago i was descending down the exact route these climbers were ascending when the avalanche came. A friend and I had just finished climbing on the "triangle" of Tacul, the obvious rock/ice face on the left of the photo Climbing.com published. Many parties choose to rappel down from there (its about 350 meters) but we choose to continue up to the top and walk down the sloping snow field where the avalanche occurred.
We spent 5 nights camped up in this part of the Alps and quite honestly thought an accident would happen simply from the hordes of folks "climbing" Mont Blanc via the "Trois Mont du Mont Blanc" route which is where this accident happened. It starts up Mont Blanc du Tacul via the sloping snow field, on to Mont Maudit and finishes with the summit of Mont Blanc. Everyday of clear weather, there was essentially a clusterfuck of people hiking up this glacier slog roped together. Sometimes as many as 50 in a row with close to 100 total at times going up the section where the avalanche came from.
My buddy and I in front of Tacul:
. I won't argue that an avalanche would be a horrible way to go but so would being run over by an SUV riding my bike to dinner on Maxwell st (happened couple days ago). You already know the odds I'm sure. 