Going for a ‘hike’ is not the same as hiking from Zermatt to Arolla. The first few hundred metres from Furi takes you to a lovely restaurant.
With all due respect, the ski lifts on the Trockner Steg side were not open in the morning due wind. If the ski area is closed, then you don’t start skinning up in that region and especially not in a Lycra race suit.
I read a bit about Pierre Mathey to try and understand his point of view - which seems to be the mountains should never ever be closed to people whatever the conditions and people who venture into them do so at their own risk.
So basically although it is tragic - it is a tragedy of their own choosing.
From WRS this motning.
Rescuers are still hunting for the sixth hiker who remains missing near the Tête-Blanche in canton Valais over the weekend.
The other five in the group have been found dead – they were all members of the same family – brothers and cousins – aged between 21 and 58.
The hiker who remains missing is a 28-year-old – she was a girlfriend of one of the victims and the only woman in the group.
The group were all locals. One was a prominent local politician and two were police officers.
The search for the missing woman continues today.
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Is there even a tiny tiny ray of hope? I don’t think so but otherwise they wouldn’t continue their rescue searches. At one point all the rescue searches are called off as far as I know.
Sorry to say, but at this point it’s just a search for the missing woman’s body.
Yes but she is a local, not a tourist.
Sorry to be the messenger…but searches (in general) are indeed stopped.
That’s a different search. Your link is the search for two brothers who went missing on Friday.
Yeah, poorly written reply. The goal was to convey that searches in general, not this particular one, are stopped at some point. And it’s not something from 19th century Switzerland, it’s only a few years ago.
People still disappears in the ice, and every summer the ice returns a few of them.
Shouldn’t play any role in rescue actions. Mountaineers have a different work ethics/moral code than immigration authorities. 
Back home they continue way beyond is necessary and yes even to save dumb tourists.
Talking to family at the weekend who‘ve done quite a few High Tours, the question is sometimes ‚responsibility.‘ Six experienced adults, training for a race, how strong is the group dynamic? There is no ‚leader’. Who wants to be the one to ‚chicken out‘ and say it would be dangerous.
After the incident in 2018, one of the survivors was amazed that they all blindly followed the guide whose phone didn‘t work, had no functional GPS, was using a summer route track and had obviously lost their position. The survivor wasn‘t being critical, he was one of them. Why didn‘t we question his lack of judgement? One answer was that the guide didn‘t tell the others what his plans were - so they could not make suggestions for alternative action. Was the guide afraid of having his authority overidden? All members of the group had a lot of experience in the mountains.
Also the problem can be deciding to stop before anyone in the group is completely exhausted.
Questions, no answers, but it was an interesting discussion.
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My theory, just speculation of course, was it was a case of “must-go-itis”. They had a race in a months time, were probably following a training plan, which involved them coming together that weekend to train on the route. They probably wouldn’t get another opportunity before the PdG - and for some reason the weather forecast seemed like something they could brave out.
Lesson to amateur (and pro) athletes, it’s just a race, it’s not worth it!!
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Not sure if my experience of skiers in general is typical of these sort of extreme mountaineers, but a rule of thumb in the circles I’ve skied in has always been that if anyone expresses any doubt then the group decision is a no. No blame, no repercussions and crucially no persuasion. That’s not to say that they wouldn’t feel pressured, but (again, from my own experience) any pressure would be internal, not from other group members.
Certainly always been my leading style, when I used to do off-piste leading with Ski Club of GB, and of mountain guides I’ve skied with, both as a punter and as a group leader. And indeed just skiing with friends, I’ll always make absolutely certain that everyone is happy, individually, not just as a group, and that can sometimes mean making a no-go decision based on my perception of someone’s willingness even when they haven’t actually spoken out about it. If the group aren’t happy with that then they’re not people I would want to ski with again.
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Regarding that “Go for it attitude”:
I was in a group in the Pyrenees - not ski touring but mountaineering. We were slow moving and because of the afternoon sun melting the snow, there was a lot of rock falling.
I voiced my concerns and said we should turn back from our summit intentions for that day and not make a potentially dangerous situation into a worse one.
We all turned back except two who decided to risk it and go for the summit. We were a group of friends so I was not able to force them not to go.
Later that day I ended going back up alone to rescue one of the two who had fallen 150m down rock and ice and was injured. (His friend had panicked and left him there and refused to go back up to help me find him and I was the only one willing to go back up).
Later still I lowered him down to a helicopter using a belay I had set up with a rope the others had wondered why I was carrying, and he had a ride to hospital.
As I wrote before - it’s a series of events which lead up to accidents.
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I took a look from the civil protection or weather prediction perspective. So, 2 data points: the meteo videos from RTS and SRF on the evening of Friday 08.03.2024
Both videos start with presenter talking about the foehn since Friday until Sunday. Both presenters tell the most intense wind is expected from Saturday after 12h00 until Sunday morning. Then the graphics clearly present the info.
The guy from RTS mentions that meteosuisse released local wind warnings because of foehn. SRF presents in their Friday evening video a very interesting statistic of the number of hours of föhn per month in Altdorf Uri. Nothing unusual for March.
So, all my compliments to the Swiss weather service, the prediction of strong winds from Saturday noon until Sunday morning was perfect. The communication of this info to the public is also excellent. 24 hours before people were freezing up in the mountain there was a warning of 100 kmh winds on TV. If you like outdoor activities, you even check the Swiss weather service website, no need to wait for the TV.
Within this context, it’s harder to understand what happened. Also, the article shared by MedeaFleecestealer is a bit outrageous. How can someone tell to Blick “I’ve also personally started the hike on Saturday because weather was not so bad”.
I got the warning of high winds the day before on my phone with the Swiss Meteo Severe weather notification service.
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I wish I’d taken screen shots from the weather page on the Zermatt website, the wind graphs clearly showed high winds from 1200 onwards. It made just piste skiing unlikely, not a chance I’d have considered a high alpine tour.
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I dont think it’s difficult to figure out what had happened there. It was mentioned right in the beginning of this thread and I think “komso” was spot on.
Or it could have been the leader of the group that led them all to this tragic end. Always good to question any decision made in your name or for you, when you still get the chance. And remove yourself from anything that seems too risky or adventurous, even at the risk of seeming weak or a party-pooper or whatever.
That’s a bit hard to tell because the exchanges among skiers are lost in time. Maybe few text messages in the days before would allow to investigate the dynamics within the groups, but not much. Also, it’s 2 groups, theoretically 2 leaders.
Among all the discussion, this debate from year 2018 published by the Swiss Alpine Club came up. This debate about the race up in the mountains with thousands of people. The race the dead groups were training for. On one side, a Swiss army commander in charge of organizing the race back on 2018, on the other side a retired mountain guide living in Arolla. The opinion from the retired guide highlights very important points:
“The Patrouille des Glaciers constitutes an unacceptable trivialization of the high mountains. Initially, the number of participants was bearable, and we could really talk about mountaineering. But now it is a track prepared by the army to allow patrols to connect Zermatt to Verbier as quickly as possible… What is the meaning of this? Most of the competitors are not mountain climbers, but people who like crowds. I never understood that.
In addition, the Patrouille des Glaciers pushes people to go and train in the high mountains with insufficient equipment, because they want to ski in the same conditions as in racing, where they do not need anything, since there is a hospital upstairs! This is how two people disappeared in 2014 towards Pigne d’Arolla, probably victims of the cold, following a whim of the weather.
I believe that everyone can do what they want in our mountains, but in small groups. Mass events should not be organized there. I therefore call for resizing the PdG starting by removing its organization by the army. My solution? A PdG which could be carried out all winter on an unsecured route, but equipped with electronic beacons to prove the passage of the teams. Thus, this event would become “alpinism” again, while the participants would do this route with adapted equipment and would once again take their responsibilities.
So, the wild mountain is made “safe” for a weekend every 2 years because of the support provided during the race: checkpoints, rescue personnel and material, health staff, food, a race commander that cancels the race in case of bad weather.
What’s the consequence of all the support during the race? That individuals give up their agency. How? By giving up the idea of being self-sufficient, by going up the mountain with the minimal equipment required for the race. Which is OK for a race with checkpoints where you can retire from the race.
It’s OK to ski yourself to exhaustion and be confident someone will take care of you during a race. But nature is not like that, you must take care of yourself. I think this is one of the greatest differences between people that compete and people that just go to the mountain. People that compete sometimes forget they need to reserve a bit of energy to get out of problems. The goal is not to beat the stopwatch, the goal is to go up, enjoy and get back home. For people who like to compete this is hard, because they come back home with the feeling of not training hard enough, that they could have done better. But life is what Tom1234 said: sometimes you’re tired and hungry and have to go up once again. So, think about having a bit of personal energy reserve to face the unknown.
I think that’s what the guide means by “spirit of alpinism”, that self-sufficiency and never forgetting that the goal is getting back home. The rest is optional.
Personally, I remember this because it’s a joke we made (and still do) among friends: today is race day, I can be a bit more careless, there’s rescue people ready to pick me up.
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