Swiss Alps
\nThe bodies of five out of six skiers were found in the Swiss Alps on Sunday after they were reported missing a day earlier during a ski tour that departed from the Alpine town of Zermatt, the BBC reported.
\nA major search and rescue operation was launched on Saturday after the group, which had set off from Zermatt, went missing near the 3,706m high Tete Blanche mountain.
\nZermatt, which is home to the famous Matterhorn mountain, is located near Arolla along the Swiss-Italian border
\nWhile local authorities are still searching for a sixth person, they revealed that the five skiers were found at 21:20 local time \u201cwithout any signs of life.\u201d
\nSwiss Valais canton police previously revealed that the skiers were all Swiss nationals, and ranged in age from 21 to 58 years old.
\nLocal police have alerted teams on both sides of the route but severe weather conditions have hindered the operation.
\nZermatt\u2019s air rescue service head, Anjan Truffer, stated that \u201cflying is not an option\u201d in the current weather as there are \u201cvery strong winds, heavy snow, high avalanche danger, and zero visibility\u201d.
\nHe suggested that the group may have been overcome by the bad weather, rather than struck by an avalanche, as they went missing on a low-risk route.
\nTruffer also revealed that the last signal from the group was recorded overnight which was \u201cnot verbal\u201d but allowed rescue services to get an idea of their location.
\nThe Zermatt to Arolla route, which is part of the popular 120km \u201cHaute Route\u201d from Zermatt to Chamonix, is suitable for experienced skiers, and can take several days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Swiss Alps The bodies of five out of six skiers were found in the Swiss Alps on Sunday after they were reported missing a day earlier during a ski tour that departed from the Alpine town of Zermatt, the BBC reported. A major search and rescue operation was launched on Saturday after the group, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-393059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n