Mountaineering Story

British climbers killed by avalanche in French Alps

A British climber (Rodger Payne) who was looked up to, as former chief executive mountaineering of the council, was with other Britons which sadly died after an avalanche struck on the slopes on Mount Maudit.

Another British mountaineering climber said in an interview he would have done everything the same as Rodger, and no one could have predicted that was going to happen. At the end of the interview he says he’s shocked and saddened after hearing of his death. Rodger Payne was one of the most enthusiastic climbers in the UK, he had a track record of Alpine and Himalayas mountaineering, a lot of people respected him.

The other mountaineers that were killed were said to be from Germany, Spain and Switzerland. The other two British climbers had said to taken a different route and returned back to Chamonix, where they then told the police they were safe and to not look for them. When the avalanche apparently struck when they were 4,000 off the ground.

On the morning no one expected such a large avalanche and tragedy. But on the other hand they did know it is a steep face to climb, and avalanches can occur easily, so it was still a risk. Some people referred the mountain as being a “black spot”. The avalanche got described as being the most deadly one they have ever seen in the past years.

Mount Maudit is now known as the “cursed mountain”.