Nepal: what do we know about the disappearance of the three French climbers? – LCI

DISAPPEARANCE – Three young high-level French mountaineers who had embarked on an expedition to Nepal are missing following an avalanche.

FS with AFP – 2021-10-31T18: 46: 33.203 + 01: 00

Two young climbers, accompanied by their coach, disappeared following an avalanche on a summit in the Everest region. Engaged in a high-level expedition in Nepal, they have not given any sign of life since Tuesday, October 26. This Sunday, the French Federation of Alpine and Mountain Clubs wished to testify to the“emotion” of the mountain and mountaineer community.

Who are the missing members?

The three French are all young men who are between 20 and 30 years old. According to The Dauphiné Libéré, it would be two 27-year-old men, from Chambéry and Briançon, as well as their coach, a 34-year-old from Nice. They are part of the National Mountaineering Excellence Group (GEAN), an elite formation of the French Federation of Alpine and Mountain Clubs (FFCAM). It is from its ranks that several generations of French mountaineers have emerged, like Lionel Daudet, who has climbed some of the most difficult walls in the world and explored Antarctica with the navigator Isabelle Autissier, or the mountaineer. Elisabeth Revol, survivor in extremis early 2018 of an expedition to Pakistan.

Composed of eight members, including a coach and a manager, this team flew on Friday October 1 for five weeks in Nepal to attempt several climbs in the Khumbu area, a region of the Himalayan plateau located about 150 km away. of Kathmandu, in the Sagarmatha National Park.

If the federation reports three missing members, the president of the Nepalese national association of mountain guides, Ang Norbu Sherpa, told AFP that he does not have available for the moment. “clear information on the number of missing persons”. “We have sent a team of five very experienced mountain guides. They are on their way and will start the search operations.” from Monday, he said.

What were they doing in Nepal?

This team was engaged in a high-level expedition which was to close a learning path. Arrived in this region at the beginning of October, her objective was to embark on several “climbs of still virgin north faces”, as can be seen on the GEAN website. Among them, several peaks that rise between 5,000 and 6,000 meters above sea level, located south of Ama Dablam and Cholatse.

At the end of the month, the team had split in two to complete their adventure. According to their account that they make it on the Facebook page, after having carried out a “spotting” of their “technical objectives”, the first group started on the southwest ridge. The second, made up of four members, set off on the northeast ridge nicknamed by the group “Sugar Ridge”. “by the quantity and quality of snow to be stirred, equivalent to the quantities of sugar absorbed by certain people of the group”. Since this publication of October 19, the group has no longer posted their adventures online.

What happened ?

The goal for the three men was to climb in four days the Mingbo Eiger, a peak never reached, which cumulates at 6,017 meters and close to Ama Dablam. This is'”major routes “, even if they are not “prestigious summits”, as noted to AFP by the president of FFCAM, Nicolas Raynaud. These climbers, “are people who do not take decisions lightly (…) There had been a great deal of preparation, scouting on site” through binoculars, he stressed, recalling that at such a level “inevitably the part of the random is even more important”. Tuesday, October 26, evening, after a day of climbing, “a contact was established by satellite phone from the bivouac where the climbers are installed: the first day of climbing went without problems”, indicates the FFCAM in a press release which, after this contact, had no further news.

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These French climbers have effectively disappeared after an avalanche on Wednesday. The helicopter chartered by the FFCAM in fact spotted “traces of ascent as well as the debris of a large-scale avalanche in the face”, after a reconnaissance this Saturday. The next day, “a helicopter with a rescue team is dispatched to try to find any survivors.” Commissioned, the company Kailash Helicopter Services shared photos of the site where the research is concentrated.

Tents and equipment were spotted near a glacier under Mount Ama Dablam by a rescue team on Sunday.