Missing sixth skier in Alps tragedy could have fallen into a crevice and still ... trends now

Rescuers desperately searching for a sixth missing skier in the Swiss Alps have said 'miracles happen' after finding the person's backpack next to the bodies of five other skiers that froze to death following a brutal storm this weekend. 

Air Zermatt chief Anjan Truffer, the lead rescuer deployed to find the group, said his team previously saved people who had been missing for days, giving workers a glimmer of hope the missing skier may still be alive. 

'We found missing people several days later... miracles always happen,' he said, after local police spokesman Daniel Imboden told Blick that hope remains the last person may have survived the storm.

Swiss media have speculated the individual may have fallen into a crevice, given that their backpack was found but rescuers have been unable to visually locate them. 

Truffer earlier described how his team discovered five bodies scattered on the mountain.

'First we found two people lying on the snow, severely hypothermic. Thanks to sounding poles and avalanche locators, we later found two more people lying under the snow cover. We had to shovel these out. When we found the people, they were very lightly dressed... they ended up disorientated at high altitude,' he told Swiss outlet NZZ.

He added that the ski tourers had tried to build a cave and protect themselves from the gales - in temperatures of -30 degrees C with windchill - to no avail. 

'That's actually a good idea. But the group didn't have the necessary equipment with them. They had shovels, but they were too light to do anything with this massive blanket of snow,' Truffer concluded. 

Authorities have not yet confirmed the identities of all the deceased, but two victims were named as Jean-Vincent Moix and his brother David by friends and colleagues on social media. 

Another brother, a cousin named Marc Moix and an uncle were also involved in the tragedy along with a sixth person identified as 28-year-old law graduate Emilie Deschenaux, a friend of David's.

It is not yet clear which member of the group remains missing.  

The group of six skiers, who ranged in age from 21 to 58, had left Zermatt Saturday morning with the goal of reaching the town of Arolla, near the Matterhorn mountain, later that day.

But as the group passed close to the Tete Blanche, a mountain peak between Zermatt and Arolla, the region was engulfed in a brutal storm that left the skiers stranded at an altitude of around 11,400ft (3,500 metres).

A member of the group sent a distress call to emergency services around 5pm on Saturday afternoon, authorities said, but helicopters and rescue teams were unable to deploy, such was the ferocity of the storm.

By the time a rescue team finally reached the mountain on Sunday evening, five of the six alpine enthusiasts had perished close to the Dent Blanche alpine cabin. 

Mountain guide Klaus Aufdenblatten told Blick that the ski tourers were grossly underprepared for the ill-advised trip.

'The alpinists completely underestimated the weather conditions. The wind in particular can develop enormous power,' he warned.

Colleagues of Jean-Vincent paid tribute to him yesterday, including the mayor of Vex - a small village in the Swiss canton of Valais where the deceased had only recently been elected as a councillor.

The former private banker, who was also educated at the University of Westminster, was a keen mountaineer and had decided to switch careers.

Mayor Sebastien Menoud said: 'It is such a huge tragedy to lose a colleague on the local council.

'Our thoughts are with him, his family and those around him and we express our deepest condolences to them.

'One knows that it is an immeasurable pain that his family is now confronted with.'

David also lived in Vex, and was a lawyer.

A friend of the brothers, Lucas Nanchen, posted on Facebook: 'Why is it always the best ones leave first?

'David (like his brothers) was the epitome of selflessness, always listening.

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