At least three people died and three others disappeared in an avalanche on the snow-capped Chimborazo volcano, in central Ecuador, at an altitude of 6,100 m. A previous assessment of the integrated security service ECU911 reported four dead and one injured.
The latest report shows “three mountaineers missing, three dead, three injured and seven rescued, out of a total of 16 people,” the firefighters said in a statement. The climbers who climbed the Chimborazo are Ecuadorians, local media report. The avalanche, it is not linked to the activity of the volcano but to unfavorable “climatic conditions”, specify the firefighters.
Por el mal clima suspenden la búsqueda de andinistas que fueron sorprendidos por una avalancha en el volcán #Chimborazo, #Ecuador.
▪️Se informed that los escaladores 🧗♂️ afectados son 12, cuatro de ellos fallecieron
▪️El rescate continuará a primeras horas del lunes 25 de octubre pic.twitter.com/qsTvXacbjE
– Diego Pinto (@ dpin1980) October 24, 2021
A rescue station set up
Chimborazo rises to an altitude of 6,293 m. This volcano is located about 130 km south of Quito, the country’s capital. It is the highest peak in the Ecuadorian Andes and one of the highest in the world. At its feet are the towns of Riobamba and Ambato. The massif, where skiing is not practiced, attracts national and foreign climbers.
Police officers, rescuers and soldiers specializing in high mountain operations went to the scene. For their part, the authorities have set up a unified command post in order to coordinate rescue actions as effectively as possible. The Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment has ordered the temporary closure of the Chimborazo nature reserve, which is constantly visited by tourists.
A “potentially active” volcano
In 2003, the carcass of a plane that crashed in 1976 with 59 people on board, was found at the foot of the volcano. The device had struck a wall of Chimborazo and was hidden by snow after an avalanche until it was found by climbers about 700 m from the summit. In 2015, the remains of three climbers who had disappeared 20 to 30 years earlier were also found at an altitude of 5,600 m.
Finally, in 1994, an avalanche on the Chimborazo killed ten people, including six French and one Swiss. The last eruption of the volcano occurred between the beginning of the 5th century and the end of the 7th century, according to the Geophysical Institute of Quito. “The average interval between eruptions is 1,000 years,” said the institute. Note however that “Chimborazo is considered a potentially active volcano. “