Nearly a Week, stranded at 4000m

It's a name that can thrill, an area of big exploits and sometimes of drama. The Grandes Jorasses are now six days into a new story, another event that binds mankind to the mountains. Olivier Sourzac, 47, a guide from Passy near Chamonix, and his client Charlotte Demetz, 44, from Paris and an experienced mountaineer, set off last Wednesday to climb the Shroud, a very steep wall on the famous North Face of the Grandes Jorasses. But on Thursday, Sourzac contacted the Chamonix PGHM Mountain Police. Near the summit, Charlotte was exhausted, and for a second night they bivouacked at nearly 4000 meters. Then the weather started to deteriorate. On Friday, to the relief of all, the PGHM received a new call. The two climbers had reached the summit, and the descent route is fairly straightforward, via the South Face, down to Courmayeur. But the storm prevented the team from continuing. Olivier hollowed out shelter, and managed to make one last phone call: their stove is still working, holding up their morale. But the weather doesn't improve. Two attempts on foot were made over the weekend by Olivier Sourzac's brother and another friend, but the PGHM's leader, Commander Estachy, considered it too risky to send his team, saying: "It was too dangerous, the risk to send men up there was not worth the trouble." He reached his decision with the help of the Val d'Aosta, since the two climbers were now located in Italian territory. Since Saturday, the rescue services have been flying to try to locate the stranded pair, but the fog never lifted on the Cormayeur side, making finding the climbers impossible. Although the rescue is concentrating on flights and helicopter drops, the precise location of the missing climbers is still unknown. "We do not know the exact area where they might be" said Commander Estachy, "but we know that the guide was on the normal descent route, so we will focus our search in this area". But after six days in extreme conditions, the question now is whether Oliver Demetz Sourzac and Charlotte are still alive. Commander Estachy claims he "always has hope". Yesterday, however, aerial reconnaissance found nothing, and the more flights that are made, the more the chances of finding them alive dwindle.