Giovanni Marcon, 49, was descending from the Dente del Gigante with two climbing partners
AOSTA, 21 AUG – Giovanni Marcon, 49, from Feltre, is from Belluno – the mountaineer who died yesterday afternoon on the French side of Mont Blanc, at 4,000 meters above sea level.
He was together with two other Italian climbing partners who remained unharmed. They were descending from the Dente del Gigante, on the Rochefort ridge, when it fell for over 200 meters, ending up in a gully. The alarm was raised by a French mountain guide who witnessed the accident.
From a first reconstruction of the dynamics of the facts, by the gendarmes of the Peloton de haute montagne of Chamonix, the three climbers were untied. “ We made the decision to proceed without a rope in that section – the victim’s climbing partners told the rescuers – as the terrain was very rough and the rock fragile, a decision to prevent one falling and dragging the other ” . According to what was reconstructed by the rescuers, a piece of rock broke off under Marcon’s feet, causing him to fall into the void. The climbing partners, left behind, did not notice the accident. When the rescuers arrived on the spot, they could not help but ascertain the death of the Italian mountaineer. The body is now in the Chamonix mortuary awaiting the bureaucratic formalities for returning to Italy.
.