Saturday 18th May 2013 at about 9:00 pm in the evening, two British skiers were trapped in a storm at the top of La Vallée Blanche close to the Aiguille du Midi. Unable to continue on down through the Vallée Blanche, they alerted the emergency services. The PGHM Chamonix was not able intervene because of bad weather.
The two men decided to climb back up the arête to the Aiguille du Midi and safety in the complex of buildings that is the top station of the Aiguille du Midi lift. The arête path, cut into the snow each winter, for the thousands of skiers that descend the ridge to access the Vallée Blanche, was filled in with snow and no rope was accessible.
During day-light, in good conditions, climbing up the ridge in summer requires diligence, as it is exposed. To the left, a steep snow face with exposed rock, rises 120m from the top plateau of the Vallée Blanche to the Aiguille du Midi complex. The height of the face increases the higher a person climbs up the arête. To the right, the Chamonix side, the notorious North Face of the Aiguile du Midi with its 1500m cliff to Plan d'Aiguille.
On Saturday night, conditions on the arête were bad, a low half moon providing no illumination, with a strong wind carrying snow from the Vallée Blanche side and a wind-chill factored temperature of about -16ºC.
One skier, communicating on a mobile phone with the guardian of the Aiguille du Midi, was guided up the summit ridge to the safety of the Aiguille d'Midi complex. The second skier was in a fatal fall, down the North Face of the Aiguile du Midi.
His body was recovered by the PGHM helicopter, in a weather window, early Sunday morning.
Source: Le Dauphiné with additional reporting from the Chamonix.net News Team
