Two climbers trapped

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32541, 26 February 1971, Page 9

Two climbers trapped

(N.Z.P Jl..Reuter—Copyright) CHAMONIX (France), February 25. Helicopter crews prepared for a dawn take-off today in a renewed attempt to reach two climbers trapped on a gale-swept crag after high winds and deep snow foiled all rescue bids yesterday.

The daredevil French climber and mountain guide, Rene Desmaison, aged 41, and 24-year-old Serge Gousseault faced their fifteenth day on the Grand Jorasses Range. They set out with only six days supplies to try the hairraising winter climb 13,816 feet up a sheer face of the Mont Blanc Massif and were blocked on a tiny platform near the summit.

Helicopter pilots yesterday new close enough to see one of the climbers, dressed in a dark anorak and white hat, standing with his back to the rock wall and waving. At his feet lay the other motionless in a sleeping bag. The pilots were unable to distinguish which of the climbers was standing. Helicopters tried repeatedly to approach the trapped men, but the savage winds swirling around the peaks kept' them from getting close'

enough even to lower supplies.

Another daring rescue effort was thwarted when eight mountain guides four French and four Italian were forced, back to a refuge hut for the night after being landed by helicopter on the Italian side of the range. They tried to inch their way around the mountain and up towards the trapped climbers, but shoulder-high snow and the threat of avalanches stopped them. Mr Desmaison was ousted from the local alpine guides* association in 1966, accused of recklessness. A helicopter pilot who tried to reach the men yesterday described Walker Point, where they were trapped, as “a razor’s edge.” The Defence Minister Michel Debre has told Chamonix authorities the army will all necessary aid for ‘rescue efforts.