Three climbers among nine people swept to their deaths in an Alpine avalanche that may have been set off by another mountaineer.
Three British mountaineers were among nine people swept to their deaths in an avalanche apparently triggered by another climber in the French Alps on Thursday.
Another two Britons were found alive last night having been reported missing following the disaster on Mont Maudit, "cursed mountain", in the Mont Blanc range early in the morning.
The avalanche struck as 28 climbers roped together in small groups made their way along a popular route 13,100ft up the mountain.
The dead Britons were Roger Payne, a mountain guide and his two clients. Payne, a former president of the Association of British Mountain Guides, was originally from west London but had been living in Leysin, Switzerland, with his wife Julie-Ann Clyma.
Highly experienced, he had spent decades climbing some of the world's greatest peaks, as well as helping remote mountain villages in Asia gain access to electricity and taking part in a UN-backed expedition to raise awareness of climate change. He had developed a course in safety in avalanche areas.
He was described as "one of the UK's most enthusiastic and respected climbers" by Dave Turnbull, chief executive of the British Mountaineering Council.
Walls of solid snow and ice created by strong winds overnight cascaded downwards, enveloping the group. A block some 16in thick broke off and slid down the slope, turning into a tide of snow 6ft deep and 160ft across.
Colonel Bertrand Francois of the Haute-Savoie gendarmerie, said: "The first elements that we have from testimony are that a climber could have set loose a sheet of ice, and that sheet then pulled down the group of climbers below. The incline was very, very steep."
Three Germans, two Spaniards and a Swiss national were also confirmed dead. Nine people were treated in hospital for minor injuries but the rest of the party escaped. Other climbers, including a Briton called Victor Saunders, helped pull out the victims, the BMC said.
The missing Britons contacted authorities to let them know they were safe later yesterday. They had arrived at the scene 10 minutes after the avalanche and turned back, according to one report.
A local climbing expert suggested that the tragedy could have been avoided after mountaineers reported unstable ice blocks on Mont Maudit a month ago.
Kingsley Jones, the director of Icicle, an expedition business in Chamonix, said his guides had been instructed not to follow the route, the more dangerous of two to the summit of Mont Blanc.
He said: "My initial inkling is that it was probably avoidable. There were these seracs [hanging ice cliffs] that people were aware of and making decisions about. We among others had said, no, we're not going to have our groups exposed to these risks."
France has not seen a climbing disaster on a similar scale since August 2008 when eight died in an avalanche on the nearby Mont Blanc du Tacul.
Simon Blackmore, a British mountain guide, said that a hot summer in the area had made conditions "unpredictable".
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said: "I am very saddened by today's tragedy in Chamonix, and I send my deepest condolences to the friends and families of those affected."
Additional reporting by John-Paul Ford Rojas and Donna Bowater
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}