Time running out for two climbers stranded on Mont Blanc

COURMAYEUR—Hope was dwindling Monday for two French climbers stranded in the Mont Blanc massif for over five days in temperatures plunging as low as minus 25 degrees centigrade.

Helicopter searches have so far failed to locate Charlotte Demetz, 44, and her guide Olivier Sourzac, 47, who became stuck on Wednesday some 150 metres from the Walker’s Point peak (4208 meters) on the south-facing Italian side of the Grandes Jorasses mountain.

Efforts to find them have been hampered by persistent fog.

“Hope is running thin. We still have some hope because they are experienced climbers and well-equipped but the weather is not helping them,” Jean-Baptiste Estachy, head of Chamonix mountain search and rescue, told a press conference in Courmayeur, Italy.

Before telephone contact was lost on Friday, Sourzac had told rescuers that the pair had dug a hole to take refuge in.

Helicopters will resume the search Tuesday but weather conditions are not forecast to improve until Wednesday morning, according to local officials.