Matterhorn victims identified
Jungfraujoch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The weekend of 15-16 October was a deadly one in the Swiss Alps, with three people dead and one in critical condition following three separate accidents at high altitude.
Speedflyer fails on takeoff from Jungfrau
A speedflyer died Saturday 15 October when his Jungfrau takeoff failed. The 25-year-old Swiss man, paragliding with skis, was with two friends whose flights went off without a hitch at 14:00, but for reasons that Bern police have not provided, he had trouble taking off. He ran into a wall of ice and fell to his death. The trio had left from the Jungfraujoch, a popular tourist destination, to climb to the top of the Jungfrau, at 4,158 metres.
The young man’s body was recovered from a crevasse by a Club Alpine Suisse search and rescue team working with Air Glaciers.
One climber has died and a second is in critical condition after they fell while ascending the north face of the Matterhorn Sunday.
Grand Combin claims 20-yr-old
A 20-year-old Valais man died early Sunday 16 October after he slipped while climbing the Grand Combin in canton Valais. He and a friend had just left the Valsorey hut in order to climb the Combin de Valsorey, 4,184 metres. He was wearing hiking boots equipped with crampons when he slipped and fell about 400 metres to his death.
Zermatt North Face: roped pair fall
One climber, age 43, was killed and his companion critically injured after the first man apparently slipped on the North Face of the Matterhorn, at 07:30 Sunday morning and the pair, who were roped, fell several hundred metres. The two, both Italian and from Brescia, were climbing up, taking the Schmid route, when the accident occurred at about 3,700 metres. The second climber, in his 20s, was flown by helicopter to the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne and is listed in critical condition Sunday evening.
The Moench, viewed from the Jungfrau (photo: Dirk Beyer / wikipedia)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A 51-year-old Dutch climber died when he fell while coming down from the Moench to Lauterbrunnen, in canton Bern, Wednesday 31 August.
He was climbing with a friend and during the afternoon they began their return, down the south face of the mountain.
When they were at about 3,940 metres the first climber heard a noise and saw the other, who was not roped, falling.
He alerted rescuers but he was dead when the Air Glacier team arrived on the scene, say canton Bern police.
The Moench is one of the three triplet mountains that are hugely popular with climbers: the Eiger, the Moench and the Jungfrau.
Fredy Nock's highwire performance at the Jungfrau, 160 metres long high-altitude walk
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Fredy Nock, member of the Swiss Nock circus family, has set a new world record for the longest and highest altitude tightrope walk, balancing his way along 160 metres of rope next to the Jungfrau in central Switzerland.
The walk, Tuesday 30 August, surprised and enchanted a crowd of hikers and tourists visiting the Top of the World centre, as well as 180 travel journalists from around the world who were being given a tour of Switzerland by the Swiss travel office.
The conditions, said Nock, who paused and sat down three times during the walk at more than 3,800 metres, was difficult because at that altitude it was difficult to keep the rope dry.
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Jungfrau ascent (photo: wikipedia)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – A group of 60 climbers early this morning, 3 August, celebrated the 200th anniversary of the first ascension of the Jungfrau at the top of the peak. The Jungfrau was the first Swiss mountain over 4,000 metres to be climbed, in 1811. Four men made it to the top 3 August that year, arriving at the top at 14:00.
The Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area was named a Unesco World Heritage site in 2001.
The ATS Swiss news agency reports that the group today took two different routes up, roped together in groups of three. They arrived early in the morning with fine weather, but some were surprised by a hail storm coming down.
The Jungfrau area in 2012 will celebrate the centenary of its celebrated cog railway, the highest train in Europe and one of Switzerland’s most popular tourist attractions.
Bern / Chur, Graubuenden, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two guides who have been on trial for their part in the deaths of six soldiers during a military mountain training expedition on the Jungfrau have been acquitted. They were on trial in a Swiss military court for involuntary manslaughter and for not observing military regulations.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two military tribunals that have been investigating separate accidents which killed six soldiers on the Jungfrau in July 2007 and five soldiers in the Kander river in June 2008 have pressed charges. The cases against three men, one a commanding officer and the other two mountain guides who were hired to work with the army, go to court in Chur in November 2009. The men charged risk up to three years in prison, according to news agency ATS.
Bern, Switzerland (RSR, Fre) – The Swiss Army confirmed Friday morning that an avalanche took place on the section of the Jungfrau where six soldiers were killed earlier in July. It refused, however, to conclude at this stage of the investigation that the avalanche was directly responsible for the deaths of the roped climbing team.
