A 31-year-old mountaineer died on Saturday in Revel, in Isère. The young woman was on the north ridge of the Grand Colon in Belledonne when she fell, reports France Bleu. The accident occurred during an outing organized by the French Alpine Club.
She was roped with seven other people but the rope turned out to be too small. The mountaineers therefore completed the route using crampons and ice axes. The 30-year-old then unscrewed for almost 600 m in a snowy corridor. Mountain rescue was immediately called but was unable to do anything. The young woman was declared dead at the scene. An investigation has been opened by the Grenoble prosecutor’s office.
These accidents are frequent: last November, a professional mountaineer died in an avalanche while he was progressing on a rope with another man, also experienced. In September, a 25-year-old mountaineer died after falling from a via ferrata in Haute-Savoie.
And a year ago, a rope of mountaineers unscrewed in the Aravis massif: two mountaineers, a man and a woman in their thirties, were victims of a fall of more than 500 m. The man did not survive, the woman was seriously injured.