SummitPost.org

Posted: **Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:19 am**

ArtVandelay wrote:terrible, but the client is very lucky that he wasnt pulled off the mountain too...you are always short roped together...if the guide took a big fall and they were climbing together, he would have pulled the client off with him...if the rope was fixed on an iron(which is likely at that point in the climb), the guide would not have been able to fall further than the length of the uncoiled rope...maybe he wasnt wearing a helmet and hit his head?

i think it is expected that there will be several deaths on the matterhorn each summer. i was climbing the hornligrat a few weeks ago and several people fell to their deaths. i also witnessed a pretty big rock fall that could have very easily knocked several people off...it is always a dangerous mountain, especially with the crowds.

Any sources online regarding these multiple deaths? I am curious as I was there a couple of weeks ago and never heard about them?

Posted: **Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:16 am**

A remarkable co-incidence. I was there on August 6th and observed what I was told was a training exercise.

Looks like the next day.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-09-Swiss-mountain_N.htm

Posted: **Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:49 am**

http://www.osez-decouvrir.com/accueil_en.html#

Posted: **Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:38 am**

Very sad. It´s a dangerous job. :cry:

Posted: **Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:45 am**

Sometimes even people in extremely good shape can die of a sudden heart attack. I know of a case in Denmark where a man in his thirties who was a very good climber (who had climbed Dhaulagiri for instance) was asked by his mother to move a heavy armchair - and dropped dead on the spot! Perhaps that is what happened to the guide, it seems unlikely he would just fall.

Posted: **Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:17 pm**

Ejnar Fjerdingstad wrote:Sometimes even people in extremely good shape can die of a sudden heart attack. I know of a case in Denmark where a man in his thirties who was a very good climber (who had climbed Dhaulagiri for instance) was asked by his mother to move a heavy armchair - and dropped dead on the spot! Perhaps that is what happened to the guide, it seems unlikely he would just fall.

yes. Last year, the Prime Minister of NZ guide had a heart attack and died.

Posted: **Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:17 pm**

ArtVandelay wrote:
radson wrote:A remarkable co-incidence. I was there on August 6th and observed what I was told was a training exercise.

Looks like the next day.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-09-Swiss-mountain_N.htm

i dont know about what happened on the 6th, but late afternoon on the 5th was not a training exercise. my guide was actually involved in the recovery so i know that it was not training...later that night at the hut he told me that it was a "rescue mission" and when i asked where the people were stuck on the mountain(since i assumed that a rescue mission would involve live people), he said they had fallen and they were just recovering dead bodies.

btw, that article you posted is the right month and day, but wrong year

doh..I'm an idiot.

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:30 am**

KristoriaBlack wrote:http://www.ledauphine.com/chute-mortelle-gerald-durand-a-devisse-alors-qu-il-escaladait-le-mont-cervin-avec-un-client-un-guide-annecien-se-tue-en-italie-@/index.jspz?article=181095&chaine=23
Unscrewed from what?

From nothing, because in French, "dévisser" means both "to unscrew" and " to fall".

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:36 pm**

Yeah, it sounds like he unclipped for some reason and then fell.

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:53 pm**

It says "a dévissé et a chuté" though. That wouldn't make sense if dévissé also means falling.

All that said, RIP :cry:

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:36 pm**

Yes, it's (slightly) redundant. French newsmen often write in that kind of style. In this case the idea is to increase the emotional impact by emphasizing that the client watched him tumble to the end of the rope.

But "devisser" primarily means "let go", even if it can also mean "tumble". "Chuter" is to tumble, slide or free-fall. So the translation is he came off the rock for unknown reasons (as if this were somehow mysterious!), then fell to the end of the rope.

Devisser: A.? ALPINISME. Lâcher prise et tomber. (Quasi-) synon. décrocher. P. ext. La métaphore « dévisser », usitée par les alpinistes, est parfois appliquée à une chute à grande vitesse [du skieur] en haut d'une « bosse » (Comment parlent les sportifs ds Vie Lang., 1953, p. 140).

Posted: **Thu Aug 27, 2009 2:07 am**

Gotcha, so 'came off' the rock and then fell to the end of the rope. That makes sense.

SummitPost.org

French Guide Dies on the Matterhorn Lion Ridge

Gerald