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Rossetto, who was leading two Danish climbers up the mountain, said the three of them may have survived because they were on the edge of the falling slab instead of the center.
"We were on the edge of the avalanche -- that was our fortune -- while the other climbers were held under by masses of snow," he was quoted as saying. "Where we were, I didn't see the wind slab."
When the avalanche hit, he said, it was "without sound, just a gust. ... You are trapped inside, it tosses you around. With each shock, you ask yourself if it's going to get worse. It's like I was in a washing machine," he said.
He was quoted as saying he didn't expect the death toll to be so large. "I think the mountain forgives no one," he said.
The dead included the former head of the British Mountaineering Council, Roger Payne, and clients he was leading up the Trois Monts route to the 15,782-foot (4,810-meter) summit of Mont Blanc, the group said on its website.
The Mont Blanc massif is a popular area for climbers, hikers and tourists but a dangerous one, with dozens dying on it each year. Chamonix, a global epicenter for serious alpine climbing, hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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