Les Droites North Face and the Lagarde in red, © Jon Griffith

Two Lithuanian climbers are now confirmed dead after remaining stuck at the top of the Lagarde Couloir on the NE face of Les Droites in Chamonix. The two man team had been pinned down approximately 150m beneath the summit (at the base of the mixed difficulties) in the relative shelter of the couloir since Wednesday, but with winds reaching 120kmph and temperatures of below -20 degrees and near constant snow fall it was impossible to reach them. At 6am on Friday morning the PGHM in Chamonix received a text saying that the other climber had succumb to the cold and by Saturday the last climber had run out of gas which he was using to keep himself warm. Texting that Saturday at 15.30 that he had dug a snow hole and, apart from running out of gas, was doing well, it was not until yesterday (Sunday) that the clouds cleared enough for the PGHM to fly a helicopter near to the couloir. Unfortunately the visual sighting of the last climber confirmed that he had left the show hole and had somehow fallen, hanging from the end of the rope. They are unsure of what exactly happened and are waiting for the current weather system to settle down before retrieving the bodies from the couloir.

Many thanks to the PGHM for their help in compiling this report and our thoughts go out to the friends and families of the unfortunate climbers.