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| Rene Romet ? The Stuff of Heros | 12/05/2009 8:42 |
| Winched rescues only really began in the late 1960s. Before it had been common to use helicopters as a kind of air ambulance, landing teams as close as possible to accidents then letting a ground crew pick up the injured. | |
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| Alouette III Facts | 10/05/2009 17:59 |
| Designed by Sud-Aviation, who would also work on Concorde, the first Alouette 3 prototype flew at Bourget airport near to Paris in February 1959. A second prototype landed on Mont-Blanc (4810 meters) in June 1960. | |
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| Record setting on the Ecrins | 08/05/2009 11:28 |
| Just six months after suffering from a serious accident on Pumori in Nepal Corinne Favre has established a record for the fastest climb of the 4000 meter Dome des Ecrins from L?Argentière-la-Bessée 3000 meters below. Corinne was accompanied by Nathalie Bourillon for the climb which they covered in 5h10. | |
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| Alain Frébault ? The Pilot of the Grandes Jorasses | 07/05/2009 13:13 |
| Alain Frébault was present for the retirement of the Alouette III. He is remembered for one of le Versoud?s finest moments when he and a team of rescue workers from Chamonix plucked Rene Desmaison from the face of les Grandes Jorasses in Chamonix. | |
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| Alouette III ? A revolution in mountain rescue | 06/05/2009 19:59 |
| The Alouette III is equipped with a 40 meter hydraulic winch but despite the introduction in of the helicopter in 1962 winched rescues didn?t become the norm until the late 1960s. Winches were first fitted to the III from 1965 but crews were dubious at first believing winched rescues close to sheer cliff faces would leave them exposed to rock fall and collisions. Alouette III winch | |
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| Alouette III: Triumph and Tragedy | 06/05/2009 7:58 |
| The Alouette III appears incredibly fragile, however it has proved itself on numerous occasions. The contrast between this mechanical insect and the imposing mountain is stunning. The pleasure of floating above the world, crossing slopes, ridges, cols and glaciers in the blink of an eye. Sikorsky 58 wreck on Mont Blanc | |
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| Two skiers missing on the Dômes de Miage | 05/05/2009 8:27 |
| Despite an extensive search by rescue workers two ski mountaineers, a man and a women aged in their 50s are missing somewhere in the Dômes de Miage sector in the Mont Blanc range. | |
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| Adieu to the gentille Alouette | 05/05/2009 5:13 |
| Pilots, such as the legendary Alain Frebault, Reme Romet and Jean-Pierre Roca come and go but the Alouette was always there. Criss-crossing the skies with the characteristic thud-thud of its jet turbine. On Saturday the last of the Alouette III rescue helicopters were decommissioned. We were at le Versoud aerodrome near to Grenoble to follow proceedings. Alouette III above the Versoud aerodrome | |
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| Cornice collapse kills Pyrenean ski tourers | 04/05/2009 16:25 |
| One ski tourer is missing and another has been killed above the étang (lake) de Gnioure on the south-east face of the pic d?Endron. The pair were climbing on a cornice which broke away from the mountain around 2300 meters. | |
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| Chamonix Plays Apprentice | 30/04/2009 19:01 |
| Shareholders in the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc, including the Seydoux family, Chamonix town hall and the Compagnie des Alpes are unhappy. Not only has the resort been hit hard by the credit crunch with a dearth of free-spending British and Russian guests but there have been massive cost overruns on the new Planpraz gondola lift in Chamonix. | |
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