Five skiers who went missing and were later tragically found dead in the Swiss Alps this weekend appear to have tried to build a 'snow cave' in an attempt to survive.
A group of six skiers, five of whom were family, set out from the town of Zermatt, Switzerland near the Matterhorn mountain in 'relatively good' conditions on Saturday (9 March).
They had been travelling a route to the village of Arolla, near the Swiss-Italian border, but did not arrive and another family member alerted police when they didn't show up as planned.
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A subsequent search picked up a distress call from one of the missing skiers and identified them as being somewhere on the Tête Blanche mountain, which is around 12,000ft high.
Search and rescue efforts were disrupted by poor weather conditions, with regional police commander Christian Varone explaining that rescuers were forced to turn back in part due to risks of an avalanche, while a storm prevented helicopters from approaching the stricken skiers.
He explained that of the six people missing, five were part of a family that lived in the Valais region while a sixth person was from Fribourg.
The police commander said that the group were aged between 21 and 58, and did not say whether the five found dead were all family members or not.
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A search for the sixth person is ongoing, while investigations into the exact causes of death of the five victims is underway.
Rescue efforts were able to use mobile phone networks to pinpoint the location of the missing skiers, with a doctor, police officer and two rescuers able to take a helicopter to the area and recover the five bodies.
Five bodies were found on the Sunday (10 March) 'without any signs of life', with the head of the rescue operation telling Swiss media that the five appeared to have attempted to dig a 'snow cave' to protect themselves from the cold.
They said: "The picture we found was ugly.
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"We saw that the ski tourers had tried to build a cave and protect themselves from the wind.
"The ski tourers froze to death at altitude, disorientated."
The 75-mile long route the six skiers were attempting to traverse takes several days and is only recommended for experience skiers.
It's not the first time that tragedy has struck in this region of the world, as in 2018 seven hikers died in the area.
Topics: World News
Joe Harker