Rescued climber sees colleague die in Alps

A BRITISH climber trapped on a freezing mountain at 13,000ft for four days was lifted to safety yesterday by a helicopter rescue team that arrived too late to save his companion.

Jemmison Andrew, 30, had been stuck on the isolated ridge in the French Alps since last Thursday and a previous rescue attempt had been forced back by the appalling weather. His companion who died was named as Jamie Fisher, 28.

Mr Andrew was in a critical condition in a French hospital last night. Doctors said he had been lucky to survive. Blaise Agresti, the police rescue team leader, said it was a miracle.

In a separate incident, a British snowboarder, Robert Coates, 26, died after he was hit by an avalanche on the same mountain. In response to the two deaths, the French authorities issued an alert yesterday, advising against hiking and skiing off-piste.

Mr Andrew and Mr Fisher, both said to be experienced climbers from Edinburgh, had set off to tackle the Driotes peak, near Chamonix, in France's Mont Blanc range, last Tuesday.

They are believed to have made an attempt on the peak on Thursday but were stopped by a blizzard.

The alarm was raised by the father of one of the men but when rescuers tried to reach them on Saturday they were forced back by winds of 85mph, which made flying their helicopter impossible.

With snow continuing to fall in the area and the men's supplies running out, rescuers were concerned about theirphysical condition, especially after spending so long in temperatures which at night plunged to minus 25C or even lower.

"They were in a very bad situation," said a French policeman, Jacky Paille.

"Besides the wind and the snow, they had to contend with temperatures of less than minus 25C."

In a break in the weather yesterday, rescuers flew to the men and used a winch to take them off.

The rescue was described by officials as "daring" but it arrived too late for Mr Fisher, who was already dead.

"The wind made the operation extremely dangerous," Mr Paille added.

A spokesman from Chamonix Hospital said last night that Mr Andrew had a good chance of surviving the ordeal, now he was down from the mountain.

"The climber is in intensive care in a critical condition with hypothermia, but I think he will live," said the spokesman.

"He was on the mountain for almost a week in freezing conditions and was very lucky to survive."

In a separate incident, Mr Coates, who worked in a hotel at the Alpe d'Huez ski station near Grenoble, had been snowboarding off-piste at 6,235ft on Saturday when the avalanche hit.

Rescuers took him in a coma to Nord Hospital in Grenoble, where he died yesterday.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said last night there had initially been problems with contacting the men's families. He said that relatives had now been informed.