A 30 year old man was involved in an accident yesterday around 11am, next to the Envers des Aiguilles de Chamonix. The climber, from Alpes Maritimes, suffered a rib injury but managed to reach the Envers des Aiguilles hut. Also, the PGHM performed a rescue close to the Couvercle hut of two people with slight injuries. Par ailleurs, les hommes du peloton de gendarmerie de haute montagne étaient intervenus lundi pour deux blessés légers au refuge du Couvercle. AFTER THE MERCANTOUR TRAIL ACCIDENT: the organisation of the UTMB 2009 will rise the surveillance Last Sunday, 21st June, in the Mercantour (Alpes Maritimes), 3 people were found dead after a big storm hit that region. They had been participating in the Grand Raid du Mercantour, a long distance race. This situation has alerted the organisers of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, competition that takes place in Chamonix on every August. The organisers of the Grand Raid suspended the race but some competitors did not arrive at their next control post. Catherine Poletti, of the UTMB explains that, "Storm conditions are more difficult to forecast in the mountains. Since the start of the UTMB in 2003, pre-planning adverse weather has proved difficult. It is difficult to locate the competitors." The organization has a €100,000 security budget. This includes the use of an on-line monitoring system that is designed to track the location of all the competitors. At each of the 22 control posts, a surveillance system monitors the progress of each competitor. Close to the end of the race, the first 30 competitors are tracked by GPS, which is relayed to the UTMB website for on-line, real-time tracking.
