Woman ‘miraculously’ found in glacier crevasse after two days
The Grenz glacier, stretching away to the left in this photo.
Keystone / Alessandro Della Bella
A Russian woman was found alive and well in a glacier crevasse in canton Valais on Tuesday, two days after she had fallen in while walking alone on the ice.
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Mulher é “milagrosamente” encontrada em uma fenda nas geleiras após dois dias
The woman, who lives in Germany, was adventuring across the Grenz glacier in southern Switzerland on Sunday when she fell some 10-15 metres into the crevasse. Since she was alone, the accident was not reported, nor was she reported as missing to the police.
On Tuesday, after two days and two nights of holding out on an ice bridge, she was lucky enough to be heard by a group of climbers passing nearby, who alerted the rescue services.
The woman had no major injuries, although she was suffering from mild hypothermia, with a body temperature that had dropped to 34 degrees Celsius.
According to the Keystone-SDA news agency, the Russian had set off on Sunday on the high-altitude glacier wearing shorts and lacking the usual equipment for such terrain.
The Grenz glacier is in canton Valais, between the resort of Zermatt and the Italian border. It reaches up to 4,000 metres above sea level. The woman was walking not far from the Monte Rosa alpine hut, which is situated at 2,882 m.
A statement by the Air Zermatt rescue services said they had “never in the past 20 years witnessed such a miraculous rescue from a glacier crevasse”.
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