British climber killed by falling ice on ‘Cursed Mountain’

A British woman was killed with two fellow mountaineers when huge slabs of ice landed on top of them as they scaled a notorious peak in the Alps.

The climbers were tackling 14,649ft Mont Maudit — which means the Cursed Mountain in French — in France’s Mont Blanc range.

Stephane Bozon, of Chamonix gendarmerie, said they had not stood a chance: “The three victims died instantly due to head injuries caused by a mixture of snow and ice. Some slabs of ice were four metres by three metres.”

The victims, who have not been named, were a 33-year-old British woman with a Slovak background, a Slovakian national aged 32, and a German mountain guide aged 50.

The bodies of the Briton and the Slovak were found in a gully last night. Emergency workers discovered the body of the German at dawn today.

The group had set off from Cosmiques refuge, which can be reached by cable car, at about 1.45am on Tuesday.

In 2012 nine climbers, including three Britons, were killed by an avalanche on Mont Maudit. Last month former Marine Duncan Potts, 28, from Devon, died in a accident in another part of the Mont Blanc range.