Two climbers stuck for fifth day at 4,000 metres in French Alps

Nov 7, 2011, 16:54 GMT

Paris - Efforts to rescue two French climbers who have been trapped for five days at 4,000 metres on the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps were hampered by continuing bad weather Monday, French media reported.

Olivier Sourzac, a mountain guide, and Charlotte Demetz, an experienced climber from Paris, both in their forties, have been trapped by heavy snow and fog on Walker Peak (4,208 metres) since Wednesday.

In his last telephone call from the mountain before his phone battery died Friday, Sourzac said he had dug a hole in the snow under an ice ledge for shelter.

France's weather service said that the temperature Monday morning in that part of the Alps was -10 degrees Celsius. However, the climbers would be feeling temperatures of -20 degrees because of the windchill.

At night the temperature can get down to -25 degrees.

French and Italian rescue workers attempted frantically to locate the pair by helicopter on Sunday, but visibility was constrained by heavy fog.

A helicopter overflew the area again on Monday morning but could not spot them.

A group of eight guides, including Sourzac's brother, tried to reach the area by foot at the weekend but were forced back down the mountain by bad weather.

French media recalled previous cases of mountaineers being stuck at high altitudes for several days in winter. Rene Desmaison survived 15 days at 300 metres from the summit of Walker Peak in 1971. His climbing partner Serge Gousseault died on the mountain.

In February 1999, three hikers survived 10 days at 3,000 metres in the Alps by packing themselves into a hole in a snowdrift.