Family Gets Closure for 6th Missing Victim from Tragic Incident on Tête Blanche, Switzerland

Five months ago, on March 9, 2024, a group of six backcountry skiers became stranded on the Tête Blanche while on the traverse from Zermatt to Evolène in Switzerland on a route that is part of the Haute Route. The weather changed, and the group became disoriented and set off a distress call, but conditions were unsafe for search and rescue teams to get to them. The following day, the bodies of four people were found in a small cave the group managed to dig, and a fifth person was found near the cave. However, the sixth skier, the female who had sent the distress call, could not be located. Her backpack and skis were found in the cave, so hopes of finding her alive were extremely low. Search and rescue searched for the sixth skier for four days but abandoned the active search on March 14.

• Related: 5 Backcountry Skiers Killed and 1 Missing Near Zermatt, Switzerland

During a helicopter flight over the Tête Blanche by the Rescue Organisation of the Canton Valais/Wallis (KWRO) and Air-Glacier on August 10, a piece of clothing was spotted in the snow. Specialists of the mountain division of the Cantonal Police of Valais/Wallis were dispatched to the site, where officers found a body. The body was pulled from the snow and identified as that of the missing 28-year-old woman from Freiburg, Switzerland.

The tragic fate of the group had shaken the local community—the group had consisted of three brothers, their cousin, and uncle, aged 21, 27, 30, 44, and 58 years, as well as a girlfriend of one of the brothers. Aside from the girlfriend, all skiers were local residents and all very experienced backcountry skiers. One of the brothers had completed a Patrouille des Glaciers in 2018, a tough backcountry race organized every two years by the Swiss Army. Unfortunately, the group had packed light for the training but were otherwise well equipped. The weather changed from a clear morning to a treacherous storm that left the group disoriented in the Tête Blanche area and ended their training excursion with a tragedy. It was the worst tragedy in the area since April 2018, when seven people perished in a storm on the Haute Route.

• Related:[VIDEO] The Deceased 6 Backcountry Skiers’ Desperate Fight for Survival at Tête Blanche, Switzerland