Alex Trelinski
TWO Spanish mountaineers, aged 26 and 27, died on Wednesday on Mont Blanc in the French Alps.
The deceased climbers came from Lezo and Oiartzun in the Basque Country.
A third member of their team was slightly injured and was taken to hospital in Sallanches.
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The accident occurred when the climbers were descending from the summit of Mont-Blanc du Tacul, one of the peaks that make up the Mont Blanc massif- the highest peak in Western Europe.
The roped team of mountaineers fell for unknown reasons from a height of about 100 meters according to French authorities.
A rescue helicopter recovered the bodies on Wednesday afternoon and took them to Chamonix after getting an emergency alert at 1.20pm.
According to the Foreign Office, Spain’s Consulate General in Lyon ‘is contact with the French authorities and with the families of the victims to offer them the necessary consular assistance’.
On August 5, a mountaineer died and four more were injured on the French side of the Mont-Blanc massif by a detachment of ice that affected 15 climbers from various roped groups.
