Drama at the Tête-Blanche
Last weekend, a search was conducted for six missing persons in the Tête Blanche area. Air Zermatt and rescue specialists from Zermatt used every opportunity under the most difficult conditions to find the missing persons.
Challenging and difficult. This is how the mission of Air Zermatt and the Zermatt rescue specialists at the weekend can be summarized. Late on Saturday afternoon, Air Zermatt received an alert from the cantonal Valais rescue organization KWRO (emergency number 144) that six alpinists were missing in the Tête-Blanche area.
Despite the storm and snowfall and at night, an Air Zermatt helicopter took off to fly five rescue specialists from Zermatt as far as possible into the area. However, the attempt to rescue the six alpinists by land had to be abandoned due to the very poor weather conditions and the associated dangers.
The weather in the Zermatt and Tête-Blanche region only calmed down on Sunday evening. Air Zermatt helicopters were deployed during the night and once again flew rescue specialists into the area. They were dropped off near the Dent Blanche. The rescuers reached the Tête-Blanche area at around 9.20 pm. For five of the six ski tourers, all help came too late.
The sixth ski tourer has not yet been found. The search for him is still underway.
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