Hiker falls to death in Mont Blanc massif day after 4 climbers found dead on iconic peak

A Danish hiker fell to his death Wednesday in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps after slipping from a trail, rescue services said, just one day after four climbers were found dead on the iconic peak.

The 61-year-old man was walking through a steep area near Saint-Gervais-les-Bains in the Haute-Savoie department of eastern France when he fell around 100 feet, officials said.

The fall killed the man instantly, the PGHM mountain police service in Chamonix said.

Wednesday’s fatality comes the day after four climbers, two Koreans and two Italians, were found dead on Mont Blanc itself after becoming stranded on the Alps’ highest peak for days in harsh weather.

The four mountaineers had “died of exhaustion,” the Haute-Savoie prefecture told AFP.

One senior PHGM commander told regional daily Le Dauphine Libere that they had briefly reached the Italian climbers by phone and gleaned their location 4,600 meters up on Mont Blanc’s north face, but that the connection had cut out.

At 4,809 meters, Mont Blanc is western Europe’s highest peak and very popular with climbers from all over the world. However, scaling the mountain is risky.

In 2022, a French mayor said conditions on Mont Blanc were so dangerous that climbers should pay a €15,000 deposit to cover rescue and possible funeral costs, the BBC reported. At the time, Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais, criticized “pseudo climbers” who insisted on attempting the climb “with death in their backpacks.”