two climbers froze to death in the Alps in the middle of a snowstorm

According to Italian media, climbers died in the area called Pyramide Vincent, a 4,200 meters above sea level. Both have cultivated a great friendship and a passion for mountain adventure.

Paola and Martina, accompanied by their hiking companion, Valerio Zolla (27 years old), were found Saturday evening by Italian and Swiss rescue teams.

Zolla is hospitalized for hypothermia in Virgo, Switzerland, from where he says that the weather “changed in five minutes“and that the storm left them” stranded at the height “, according to local media such as The imprint e The messenger.

Additionally, the surviving climber explained that it was so cold he took off “the gloves to give them“to his companions. I did what I could to help the rescuers,” he said.

The girls were transferred to the Mantua refuge, some 700 meters below, where the doctor’s attempts to reanimarlas they were unnecessary. It was midnight when the Swiss helicopter managed to land.

He was Zolla who asked for help at 2:30 p.m. local time that Saturday. “We are at Pic Giordani”, he told them, but in reality the three friends were at the Pyramide Vincent, in the middle of a storm.

After Zolla’s call, the first rescue team left on foot and the guides followed a path that did not lead them there, but to another hut: “It was not us who asked for help. ‘help,’ they were told on the spot. These were crucial moments.

From that moment the waiting for new information began, until they could pget in touch with Zolla’s family. At this time it was confirmed that the young man was in the mountains.

The young i have to call backor, but gave an incorrect indication, that it was in the Giordani, but added: “I see the Cristo delle Vette. The statue is at the top of the rocky island, from which the guides deduced that they were in the pyramid of Vincent.

In total they were seventeen people involved in looking for them. “When rescuers arrived the situation was dire,” Italian media wrote.

Who were Martina and Paola

Paola Viscardi was originally from Crevola d’Ossola and lived with her family (her parents Ezio and Teresa, and her brother Simone) in Melezzo, in the municipality of Trontano.

According to the newspaper The imprint, the Viscardi are a well-known family: the father, now retired, led for many years provincial roads from Ossola.

Having attended high school and Rosmini University, Paola taught biology at an institute in the canton of Valais, Switzerland, where the tragedy also hit hard.

“She was a happy girl, she loved life and the mountains. I will take with me the memory of a kind and helpful person, ”he told the Italian newspaper. Lucio Meazza, your teacher at school.

The news of his death surprised him while he was walking the Camino de Santiago with a group of young people. “We had been in touch for a few days. She was carefree. Soon she would have made the same trip as us,” Meazza said.

Martina Svilpo Bionda was from Anzino, a village in Bannio, in the Anzasca Valley. Her family is made up of Father Giulio, Mother Maria Grazia and Sister Federica.

Martina had not lived in this city for a long time, she had moved to Crodo with her partner. Like her friend Paola too they shared a passion for biology in addition to mountaineering.

DS