Frantic Peter Saunders, 48, begged for help on his mobile phone after seeing son Charlie, 12, plunge 1,000ft from a snow-covered mountain track
The bodies of a British dad and son killed in the French Alps are to be flown home this week, police said today.
Frantic Peter Saunders, 48, begged for help on his mobile phone after seeing son Charlie, 12, plunge 1,000ft from a snow-covered mountain track.
But suddenly the line went dead. And there was no answer when rescuers tried to call back – leaving them with a vast area to scour.
Yesterday, following a 17-hour search, their bodies were found 150ft apart in the Mont Blanc range near the French Alpine resort of Chamonix.
The father and son’s family are expected to travel to Chamonix, police said.
It is believed the 48-year-old dad lost his footing as he tried to rescue the youngster in a glacial valley. He is said to have fallen around 850ft – suggesting he may have been trying to make his way down to Charlie.
The Saunders, believed to be from Buckinghamshire, had set off hiking on Saturday morning to visit an area referred to by mountaineers as The Junction, in the Bossons range of the Chamonix Valley at just over 5,000ft.
Neither carried any specialist equipment such as ice axes and rope, and wore ordinary hiking boots rather than the crampons advised by local guides.
It is a notoriously treacherous area, especially in the early spring when thawing snow and ice creates particularly difficult conditions.
The mountain police squad at Annecy received the father’s emergency call just before 3pm on Saturday. He said his son had fallen into a deep gully and he could no longer see him.
But after a few short sentences the phone cut-off and repeated attempts to re-connect went to voicemail.
Overnight, police were able to establish their identities and contact the man’s family in England via Interpol.
It then emerged they had sent photos from their hike to relatives – and locals identified scenery from one of them, enabling the rescue team to narrow down the massive search area.
The pair had taken a well-known trail, which is popular with walkers in summer, but potentially highly dangerous during the winter.
Francis Bianchi, a local government official for the region of Bonneville, said: “At 14.55 a call was made on Saturday to the national emergency call centre.
“The man said he was in Les Bossons in the commune of Les Houches and that his son had fallen.
“He did not say anything else. The call was immediately transferred to the mountain police in Chamonix.
“They repeatedly asked him questions. They could hear him and he was panicked. He did not reply to their questions. And then it suddenly cut off. It was dramatic.”
A helicopter was immediately scrambled, but the rescuers had little to go on. Mr Bianchi added: “Police thought they may have been on skis, but weren’t sure. They didn’t know the age of the son or anything.”
The first aerial sweep was launched within five minutes of the dad’s call and every mobile operator in France was contacted to try to find further information about the phone’s location.
The area was too wide, but police were able to obtain other numbers contacted by the phone that day – including a 10am call to the UK.
At 8.30pm Peter’s wife was contacted. She confirmed the pair were planning to hike up to La Jonction. After four helicopter searches and despite increasingly high winds, the bodies were spotted just before 8am yesterday.
Captain Patrice Ribes, of the Chamonix mountain police, said last night: “We think the man fell while he was on the phone to police. We think he called immediately after his son had fallen and that he fell very shortly after while trying to reach the boy. It’s very sad.”
He added: “The trail they were on can be very difficult in winter. If you do not have crampons or ice axes, it is impossible to stop if you fall.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time.”