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4 climbers found dead on Mont Blanc after victims’ phone connection with rescuers reportedly cuts out
Four climbers from Italy and South Korea were found dead on the Alps’ highest peak of Mont Blanc on Tuesday after they had been missing for three days in bad weather, the local French prefecture said.
The mountaineers had “died of exhaustion,” the Haute-Savoie prefecture told AFP, adding that rescuers who finally reached the site found the two Koreans first, close by the two Italians.
A helicopter from the PGHM mountain police based in Annecy was able to land at around 1:30 pm and found the bodies between 100 and 200 meters (330-660 feet) from the summit.
“The bodies have been brought down” from the mountain and “the families informed,” the PGHM’s Chamonix branch said.
A group of Italian mountain rescuers had reached the summit on foot after setting off in the morning but did not spot the bodies, the police added.
Police were alerted late on Saturday about “three missing climbing parties near the summit of Mont Blanc in very poor weather conditions.”
The parties had set off “without guides,” the prefecture said.
An intensive rescue effort retrieved two Koreans, who were alive, at 4,100 meters (13,450 feet) on Sunday morning.
But the weather later worsened, leaving rescuers unable to keep up the search for those still out on the mountain in subsequent days.
As late as Tuesday morning, a search helicopter had turned back from Mont Blanc as it could not find a way through clouds.
One senior PHGM commander told regional daily Le Dauphine Libere that they had briefly reached the Italians by phone and gleaned their location 4,600 meters up on Mont Blanc’s north face, but that the connection had cut out.
At 4,809 meters, Mont Blanc is western Europe’s highest peak and very popular with climbers from all over the world. However, scaling the mountain is risky.
In 2022, a French mayor said conditions on Mont Blanc were so dangerous that climbers should pay a €15,000 deposit to cover rescue and possible funeral costs, the BBC reported. At the time,
Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais, criticized “pseudo climbers” who insisted on attempting the climb “with death in their backpacks.”
“I wanted to make people react, to understand that today it’s very dangerous, almost suicidal to go up,” he told the BBC.
Melting glaciers in the Mont Blanc range have previously revealed the bodies of hikers dating back decades.
In 2019, “CBS Mornings” got a closer look at the glaciers on Mont Blanc. There are about 30 glaciers on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, all of which are melting – and in the last 50 years, Italian glaciers have lost about 40% of their mass.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.