Further Details Released After Deaths of Five Ski Tourers Near Zermatt

11th March 2024

Last modified on March 15th, 2024

They froze to death in a snow hole they had built for protection after they were caught in bad weather. The search has been called off for a 6th person. The five were from the same family. UPDATED

They have been named as three brothers, Jean-Vincent Moix, 30, David Moix, 27, and Laurent Moix, 21.

Their cousin Marc Moix, 44, and uncle Joel Moix, 58, also died.

A search has now been called off for David’s girlfriend, Emilie Deschenaux, 28, whose bag and skis were found next to the bodies.

The search was suspended after consultation with the family of the missing woman.

As with any disappearance, the cantonal police will make occasional visits to the area concerned.

They lost their bearings and froze to death during the storm last weekend.

The parents of the brothers said their beloved sons “fell asleep together” while doing something they were passionate about.

They were hit by the forecast storm on the Zermatt-Arolla route.

The group left Zermatt on Saturday morning and was reported missing in the Tête Blanche region.

On Sunday, March 10th, around 7:30 pm, a team consisting of three rescuers and a police officer from the mountain group was dropped off by helicopter near the Dent Blanche.

At around 9:20 pm the team reached the Tête-Blanche area, where it discovered five of the six people missing since the previous day.

“The picture we found was ugly…We saw that the ski tourers had tried to build a cave and protect themselves from the wind” said the director of the Zermatt Mountain Rescue, Anjan Truffer, to the Swiss media outlet Blick.

“The ski tourers froze to death at altitude, disorientated,” added Mr Truffer.

He said weather on Saturday daytime was good, but added: “We knew it would get worse at night and on Sunday. They were caught in the storm.”

The commander of the Valais cantonal police, Christian Varone, told Blick of the poor weather conditions in the area with high winds, cold, and poor visibility.

The sixth ski tourer has not yet been found and the search is still ongoing.

Five belonged to one family from the Valais canton, while the sixth person is from the canton of Fribourg.

“The conditions … make the emergency response very difficult,” the police said as the rescue was ongoing.

“The storm raging in the south of the Alps and the risk of avalanches has prevented helicopters and rescuers from approaching the area.”

Anjan Truffer, the head of Zermatt’s air rescue service, told the BBC that the weather was so bad that “flying is not an option”, with “very strong winds, heavy snow, high avalanche danger, and zero visibility”.

Mr Truffer said that the group may have been overcome by the bad weather, rather than struck by an avalanche, because they went missing on a part of the Zermatt Arolla route where the risk of avalanche is low.

The last signal from the group was recorded on Saturday night.

It was “not verbal”, Mr Truffer said, but allowed rescue services to get a rough idea of their location.

An investigation is underway.

There remained a Level 4 (High) risk of avalanche in the area on Monday.