British woman among three mountaineers killed instantly after being crushed by CAR-sized blocks of ice on France’s Cursed Mountain
Woman was trying to reach the 14,649ft peak when the avalanche hit
A BRITISH woman was killed instantly after solid slabs of ice the size of small cars landed on top of her as she tried to scale France's Cursed Mountain.
The woman was one of three mountaineers found dead after the group was hit by an avalanche made up of "large blocks of ice" while trying to climb towards the 14,649ft peak.
The friends had set off to climb Mount Maudit, in the Mont-Blanc range of the Alps on Tuesday, but were hit with difficulties as they tried to make their way to the top.
It is understood they were about 1300ft above sea level when the huge bits of glacier, between three to four metres wide, hit them, sweeping them about 160ft into a gully.
The bodies of the 33-year-old British woman, and a Slovak national, 32, were found on Wednesday night.
As dawn broke, rescuers also found the body of the 50-year-old German guide who had been climbing with them.
Stephane Bozon, of the Chamonix gendarmerie, said the victims, who have not been formally identified, did not stand a chance.
He said: "The three victims died instantly due to head injuries caused by a mixture of snow and ice.
"Some slabs of ice were four meters by three meters."
Describing further macabre details of the tragedy, Mr Bozon said: "We had to break the slabs up with a chainsaw. The bodies were discovered between 50 centimeters and one meter deep".
It is understood they were found buried between one and three feet under the snow, having suffered serious head trauma.
The British woman is believed to have come from a Polish background but will not be formally identified until her next of kin have been advised.
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All had set off from the Cosmiques refuge, which can be reached by cable car, at around 1.45am on Tuesday morning, intending to climb three peaks, including Mont Maudit, which means Cursed Mountain.
But when the German guide, who was permanently based in nearby Chamonix, failed to make contact with friends there, one raised the alarm on Wednesday.
Eight gendarmes and a helicopter were mobilised immediately, and "the first body was found at 8.08pm on Wednesday, the second at 8.50pm," said Mr Bozon.
He said the British and Slovak women were "still attached to a rope" and in a small gully, adding: "Given time and the darkness, we had to stop the search at 10.30pm, and start the search again at 6am on Thursday."
The body of the guide was found at 6.30am today, before being taken off the mountain by helicopter.
According to Mr Bozon there was "no high risk of an avalanche" on Tuesday, but the risk of falling slabs was "well known and permanent".
In 2012 nine climbers, including three from the UK, were killed by an avalanche as they attempted a dawn ascent of the same Mont Maudit - or Cursed Mountain in English.
The latest tragedy also follows a former Royal Marine dying in a climbing accident in another part of the Mont Blanc range last month.
Duncan Potts, 28, of Coldridge in Devon, was descending the Dent du Geant (Giant’s Tooth) sector when a rock fell on top of him.
Mont Blanc is Europe's deadliest mountain range, with around 100 people dying in the area every year.
Some 200 people attempt to reach the peak of the 16,000ft mountain every day during the summer months.
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