According to French media, the case concerns 34-year-old Thomas Arvey from Nice, 27-year-old Gabriel Meloch from Briançon, as well as Louis Bachaud from Chambery. The two, in their twenties, belong to an elite group of promising young climbers who underwent two years of mountaineering training with training and expeditions supervised by the French Federation of Mountaineering Clubs (FFCAM). 34-year-old Thomas accompanied them.
“There is now almost no hope of finding survivors,” AFP told AFP on Monday. Yesterday, the search was again conducted near the top of the Mingbo Eiger, and the search continues today.
Flying over their route, during a helicopter reconnaissance on Sunday, trails of climbers reaching an altitude of 5,900 meters were seen on the hills leading to the summit. According to the Bergsport Association, “At this altitude, rescuers saw the starting point of the avalanche.” “The traces show that upon reaching the summit, they gave up, turned around and began to descend through the climbing path. At the bottom of the hills, rescuers found three bags, as well as temporary accommodation equipment for the climbers.”
Pratap Jong Pandey, director of the helicopter service in Kailash, said he was seen from a helicopter, “a black body, possibly a bag” on a cliff. One of his planes shot down experienced mountain guides on Sunday looking for traces of missing persons on the mountain.
The three men were part of an eight-man expedition that reached Khumbu or Everest in late September to climb some mountain peaks between 5,000 and 6,000 metres. The last phone call with them from a temporary residence dates back to October 26th. The other five members of the team will return to France in a few days, according to the mountaineering federation.
The mayor of Nice expressed his condolences on Twitter to the families of the three missing people, in particular city citizen Thomas Arvey.
