The tragic toll of an accident on the Gran Sasso, at the pillars of Pizzo Intermesoli, is two deaths: with the two climbers – whose personal details are not yet provided but only the origin, Rome and Arezzo – contacts were lost in the afternoon yesterday, when family members tried to track them down.
This was reported by the information site emmelle.it, news also confirmed by the Alpine Rescue. The cell phones not reachable and no news from the two made us think of the worst already in the evening, when the alarm went off, at 11pm.
The two, considered expert mountaineers, were known in the environment of mountain and climbing enthusiasts. Perhaps they were caught in bad weather and during the descent they could have lost their grip, slipped and plummeted for hundreds of meters. The recovery of the bodies by the Abruzzo Speleological and Alpine Rescue was slowed down by the bad weather conditions at high altitudes.
The Roman climber was 55 years old, the Tuscan, from Sansepolcro (Arezzo), 42. The two had reached Abruzzo yesterday morning for a climb on the Gran Sasso, through the Via ferrata Intermesoli, but in the evening they did not return home, so around 11 pm the Abruzzo Speleological and Alpine Rescue was activated by the single number of Lazio for the missing, contacted by the wife of one of the two, alarmed by the fact that her husband had not returned home and did not answer his cell phone.
The Prefecture of Teramo immediately activated the mountain rescue protocol and alerted the Alpine and Speleological Rescue: ground teams left the Teramo station, who found the cars of the two mountaineers near the base for Intermesoli and despite the strong gusts of wind and rain reached the base of the wall, without however being able to identify the two hikers.
This morning the helicopter rescue with the Alpine Rescue technicians on board took off from the Preturo airport (Aquila), flew over the area and near Pizzo Intermesoli, the bodies of the two men were spotted at the bottom of a canal. The Alpine Rescue technicians alerted the Prefecture and obtained clearance from the magistrate for the recovery of the two mountaineers. Among the hypotheses under consideration, the changed climatic conditions of yesterday, which could have made the two men fall.