[imagesource:pexels]

A group of skiers who went missing close to Matterhorn mountain in the Swiss Alps tried to dig “snow caves” to save themselves from the freezing temperatures.

One of the lead rescuers told Sky News the bodies of five missing skiers were found by rescuers over the weekend, with the search continuing for a sixth, who could still be trapped due to the treacherous weather conditions.

The six skiers – five of whom are members of the same family – set off on Saturday on a ski tour from the Alpine town of Zermatt, Switzerland, with the aim of reaching the town of Arolla. They are believed to have been aged between 21 and 58, but none have been officially identified by authorities.

According to Anjan Truffer, the head of mountain rescue at Air Zermatt AG, the skiers were “dressed quite lightly” and it is believed they were training for a race before getting into difficulty.

“They were snowed in,” he said, adding: “They did try to make a snow cave to protect themselves from the wind.”

He said one of the problems the group had was a lack of proper equipment, with only “small and light” shovels. “With this equipment, you can’t manage to keep up if the snow is coming down really quickly,” he said.

With the search ongoing for the sixth missing person, Mr Truffer said everyone involved in the mission needs to be “realistic” about the outcome. “We could continue to search for another week without any luck,” he said, adding that it is very difficult to know what the best methods to use were going forward.

“Travelling on foot in these conditions on a glacier, you won’t get very far,” Mr Truffer said. “Maybe this person fell into a crevice. Maybe they got knocked over by the wind and got snowed in. It is very hard to say.”

Yikes.

If the image of Matterhorn looks familiar, it might be because the mountain’s silhouette features on the packaging of Toblerone chocolates. The image will however be removed as the makers of the triangle choccies are no longer Swiss, and under Swiss laws the chocolate can no longer be considered “of Switzerland”.

[source:sky]