'Apocalyptic' avalanche kills eight climbers at Europe's highest peak

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

CHAMONIX, France (AFP) — A mountain guide said Monday that a giant avalanche that swept away a group of climbers was like "a scene from the apocalypse".

The climbers were heading for western Europe's highest peak in perfect weather conditions, when a block of glacier ice broke free and sparked a giant avalanche.

"I saw a wall of ice coming towards us and then we were carried 200 metres (yards)," said Italian Marco Delfini, one of the survivors of the tragedy that struck before dawn Sunday on the Mont Blanc range on the French-Italian border.

Another survivor who fractured his ankle said his group was three-quarters of the way up the Mont Blanc du Tacul, one of the peaks in the range, when the guide suddenly shouted: "Run fast! Run fast!"

"There was...