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Matterhorn accident
HI I read in the US paper today that a 50 year old man fell off the Matterhorn in the past day or two. Does anyone know about this? He was hiking alone. Sue
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Are you worried about falling off the Matterhorn?
Put angst to rest- only 3 or 4 are killed each year out of 3,000 average climbers -well 'only'- so not a rare occurrence at all: http://www.climbing.com/news/10-thin...he-matterhorn/ |
That's pure nonsense! A British citizen tried to hike along a CLOSED trail between Schwarzsee and Furgg and sems to have slipped and fallen over a rock because of black ice. Skiers found his body along the skilift and alerted Air Zermatt.
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I gather there are certain sections of the Matterhorn that you actually can "fall off" of and then there are others that you can only "slip off" of.
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Some years ago I hiked up to what was basically the base camp of the Matterhorn during the summer. I can attest to the fact that the trail can be very tricky and even dangerous if not focused or used to such trails. In the winter you need to be an expert to tackle the Matterhorn or any of its trails, Apparently the man made a foolish decision which is usually the cause of accidents.
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so he did not fall off the Matterhorn after all -not an alpinist but a British rambler on a CLOSED trail - he found out too late why the trail was closed.
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A dog is still missing. How sad.
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I too have hiked up to the hut.. ( the basecamp historytraveller speaks of) .. but it was in summer. I did not find it tricky, but I am a hiker, I do think I recall some ladder bridge type areas, which would be dangerous in winter because they would be slippery.
My dad climbed the Matterhorn years ago. None of the guides were happy to take him as he was near 60 at least.. however he has a good climbing resume ( hes climbed many mountains including Mt McKinely and Mt Rainer and Baker, as well as Mont Blanc) .. so a guide finally agreed to take him. They did fine and made the summit and back with no incident. The following year my dad returned to the Matterhorn and looked up the guide who had taken him. He was dead . He was taking a Japanese climber up and the climber fell, and they were roped together . We went to the cementary in Zermatt to visit his grave. There are many climbers graves there ( as you can see from the monuments of ropes and ice axes) .. but one can never be sure how many of those deaths were on the mountain and not just to memoralize their hobby. Its not really safe to hike on trails that are ice or snow covered if one is not very careful.. too slippery even in areas that aren't steep.. and I do recall some drop offs on the trail to the hut. Its only a "hike" , meaning you don't need any special equipment , but its not a hike to be taken lightly , especially in winter. |
Once again: the whole thing has nothing to do with Matterhorn. The accident took place on another trail.
BTW: dozens of people died in the Alps last summer. Most of them had only few mountaineering experience and bad equipment. None of them was accompanied by a official mountain guide. Much more have to be rescued every year by rescue teams (1 pilote of Air Zermatt/Air Glaciers, etc; 1 physician with mountain climbing experience, 1 mountain guide) who often risk their life in this operations. In most cases, the rescued people refuse to pay for. |
Still no news of the dog ?
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Necker, I've heard of at least two Alpine guides who died in the Alps this past summer.
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That kind of thing seems to happen in the US in the Pacific NW all the time, it isn't that remarkable. It seems the papers are always listing hikers who die while falling off the mountain or slipping or whatever in Washington State. I know one died on Mt Ranier last June and a couple others with him were rescued but didn't die. I think they got lost and the one who died did of hypothermia. ANother guy died in the Cascades last June (slipped down the pass). And a woman fell into the Grand Canyon hiking there as she was doing risky things, where they dangle on the edge. Then she slipped and fell in and died.
A lot of these deaths are people hiking alone, it seems to me (the guy in the cascades was). Or they got lost and die, a woman did last summer in the Appalachians. What was really surprising to me was some woman died by falling off a chair lift yesterday at a ski resort in COlorado. that's really unusual to die by falling off the lift. I'm not sure how far the lift was off the ground, but the Denver Post said about 25 ft. She had 2 daughters were her, small, and they fell off also but didn't die. |
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Most of those kinds of accidents that happen in the mountains around here involve people who are not prepared, get lost, go skiing/boarding on out of bounds trails and go over a bank, hit a tree etc. It usually involves some risky behavior.
Respect the mountain, man. Not quite the same as climbing the Matterhorn though. |
This thread turns into a necrology. Without any interest.
They found the dog. Was run over by a car. Tragic. |
OK, I think I started this thread because I thought it might have been due to taking a risk, hiking alone, older and in a restricted area. or maybe an accident. I was remembering an accident on Mount Blanc about 25 years ago or so, when a young French mountain guide who had taken my son across Mt Blanc over to Italy the day before, tried to ski down the side of Mt. Blanc, off trail, toward Chamonix, sort of under the lift, and died. Pretty awful, but almost predictable. Sue
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