Reader recounts close call in Mont Blanc's 'death couloir'
Latvian reader Arturs Rubenis shares his experience climbing Mont Blanc, where he and his son faced falling rocks and a violent storm in the dangerous couloir.
Amid increasing reports of deadly accidents in the mountains, a LA.LV reader, Arturs Rubenis, shared his personal story of climbing Mont Blanc, Europe's highest peak, with his son Gatis and friends.
Rubenis describes how, at around 3,200 meters, the group observed the next day's route: steep brown cliffs leading to a couloir. This place is known to be unpleasant and dangerous due to frequent rockfall. Normally, the couloir is crossed early in the morning before the mountain wakes up, but the group was late, and rocks had already started falling.
While climbing, someone warned that rocks were tumbling down. Two climbers on the other side froze, but after the warning they managed to flee. A massive boulder crashed exactly where they had been standing. Gatis was fascinated, while Arturs was alarmed.
That night, a powerful storm hit the tent. The wind tugged at the tent, bending its poles, and it seemed the tent could be swept into the abyss. Arturs prayed to God and his deceased mother for help to reach the summit the next day. The night passed, and the tent held.
On the descent, the group had to cross the couloir again. Arturs and Gatis crossed together, not clipped to the safety rope, because he did not want to see his son die. They made it safely across.
At the site, there are memorial plaques for those who perished. Reading a newspaper picked up at the Chamonix tourist office, Rubenis learned that the couloir is called the 'death couloir' due to constant rockfall. A young Frenchman described how rocks fell dangerously close to them, and he saw bloodstains in the snow, indicating that others had been less fortunate.
