A Skier Fell Into a Crevasse on Monte Rosa. A Rescuer Who Went In After Him Never Came Out.
On 28 February 2026, three men ended up in the same crevasse on the Alps' second-highest massif. Two were pulled out alive. Rodolfo Franguelli, 61, was not — he fell during the effort to save the first.
Shortly after 1:30pm on 28 February 2026, a French ski mountaineer broke through a snow bridge on Colle Vincent — a col near 4,000 metres on the Monte Rosa massif, the second-highest mountain in the Alps, straddling the Italian–Swiss border — and dropped into a crevasse roughly 30 metres deep. What happened over the next hours turned one man's accident into three, and cost a would-be rescuer his life.
Key facts
- The accident happened on Colle Vincent, Monte Rosa massif (Italy–Switzerland border), on 28 February 2026.
- A French skier, 40, fell first into a crevasse about 30 metres deep.
- During the rescue a second snow bridge gave way; Rodolfo Franguelli, 61, of Gallarate, and Pietro Daniele, 38, fell in.
- Two were brought out alive. Franguelli died; his body lay deep in the ice and recovery was suspended for days by unstable conditions.
The people on the col did what mountaineers do: they moved to help the man in the crevasse. But a glacier in late winter is a lattice of hidden voids under fresh snow, and ground that holds one moment gives way the next. As the rescue unfolded, a second snow bridge collapsed. Franguelli and Pietro Daniele went into the same crevasse system. Rescuers reached Daniele and the original French skier and brought them out alive — hypothermic but breathing. Franguelli, the oldest of the three, came to rest deepest of all.
Italian and Swiss alpine rescue teams worked the site with the caution the mountain demanded — every approach to the lip risked another collapse — and for days the operation to recover Franguelli's body was suspended and resumed as conditions allowed.
What this means for anyone who walks on ice
Crevasses are the quiet killer of glacier travel. They hide under a skin of wind-blown snow, they open without warning, and — as Colle Vincent showed — the instinct to rush to a fallen companion is exactly what claims the second and third victim. That is why glaciated ground is never crossed casually: teams rope together, probe the snow bridges, and move one person at a time across the doubtful sections, so that if the surface fails, the rope and the anchored partners turn a fall into a scare instead of a fatality.
The takeaway
On any glaciated trek or climb, roped travel and a guide trained to read — and rescue from — a crevasse are not optional extras. They are the difference between a fall and a funeral.
Nepal's trekking peaks carry the same hazard: the approaches to summits like Island Peak and Mera Peak cross real glaciers, and every reputable operator fixes ropes and drills clients in crevasse-safe movement before the ice. If a Himalayan glacier climb is on your list, our peak-climbing programmes build that training in from the first day.
Source: Il Dolomiti. Our condolences to Rodolfo Franguelli's family.
来源： Il Dolomiti
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