Seven climbers dead in 24 hours on northwestern Alps as accidents hit Gran Paradiso, Mont Blanc and Matterhorn
A wave of climbing accidents across Italy's Gran Paradiso, Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn claimed seven lives in 24 hours, with bodies recovered on both sides of the Alpine border between 12 and 13 June 2026.
A deadly 24 hours in the northwestern Alps
Between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, seven climbers lost their lives in separate incidents across the Gran Paradiso, Mont Blanc and Matterhorn massifs. The sequence of accidents, spanning the Valdostan borderlands and the French side of Mont Blanc, prompted a coordinated rescue response involving Italian, French and Swiss mountain teams.
Three climbers fall on Gran Paradiso's north face
On 12 June, three Italian climbers from the Trentino region — Antonio Sardano (49), Sergio Martinelli (29) and Michael Zenatti (39) — set out before dawn from the Federico Chabod hut at 2,750 metres. They were ascending the demanding north face of Gran Paradiso (4,061 m), Italy's only entirely domestic four-thousander. When the trio failed to return by evening, an alert was raised with the Aosta emergency centre shortly after 19:30. Rescuers located the bodies at around 3,600 metres using a GPS tracker activated by one of the climbers. Investigators believe one of them slipped around late morning, dragging the other two roped partners down hundreds of metres. The bodies were transported to the Aosta cemetery.
Mont Blanc massif: three more bodies recovered
On Saturday 13 June, two climbers were found dead on the Kuffner ridge of Mont Maudit (4,465 m), on the French side of the Mont Blanc massif. The Chamonix-based Peloton de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne recovered the bodies, which were taken to the Chamonix morgue. Later the same day, Italian mountain rescue teams, working with their French counterparts, recovered another body on the Brenva Glacier, also on the Mont Blanc massif. This seventh fatality, confirmed in the early afternoon, brought the 24-hour death toll to seven.
Matterhorn: foreign climber killed on Pic Tyndall
Also on Saturday morning, a foreign climber died on the Pic Tyndall section of the normal Italian route up the Matterhorn (4,478 m). Swiss Air Zermatt retrieved the body and transferred it to Aosta for identification. Italian finance police from the Sagf unit in Breuil-Cervinia are investigating the circumstances of the fall, which occurred on one of the most delicate sections of the heavily trafficked route.
- Three climbers fall on Gran Paradiso's north face; bodies found near 3,600 m
- Two climbers die on Mont Maudit's Kuffner ridge, French side of Mont Blanc
- Foreign climber killed on Matterhorn's Pic Tyndall normal route
- Body recovered on Brenva Glacier, seventh fatality confirmed
Cross-border rescue and investigations
Rescue operations spanned national borders, with the Valdostan alpine rescue coordinating with the French gendarmerie and Swiss Air Zermatt. Investigators from the Sagf of Entreves and Breuil-Cervinia are piecing together the dynamics of each incident, but initial assessments point to slips, falls and rope-partner drags as likely causes. No single factor has been identified across the seven deaths, but local authorities note that conditions in the high mountains — weather, snow state and route crowding — can heighten risk even on well-known itineraries.
