A mountaineer fell to his death as he sought shelter from a sudden hailstorm.
Marco Peraldo Dan was a short distance behind a friend when he plunged 656 ft (200 m) down the mountain.
The friend looked behind and saw that Marco, 41, was no longer there.
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The 31-year-old descended, spotted his pal’s rucksack, and called for help.
First responders arrived on the scene by helicopter, but nothing could be done to save Marco.
The horror unfolded on the Pyramides Calcaires in the Mont Blanc massif, Italy, on Wednesday (7 Aug) afternoon.
His friend was taken to nearby Courmayeur to explain what had happened to the authorities.
The friends had reached the summit and were on their way back down when the storm took them by surprise.
Rain, wind, and hail were lashing the pair when Marco fell just below the summit at about 2,500 m (8,202 ft).
The engineering graduate came from Tollegno, Piedmont, and worked as a sales manager.
His social media snaps show he loved mountain sports.
A spokesperson for the Alpine Rescue team that reached the men said: “He was descending with a companion along the wrong route during a thunderstorm.”
The reason Marco fell is still to be determined, as reported by Need To Know.
Local media say the route the men took to reach the summit is classed as “poco difficile”, or “not very difficult”.
Marco had written in his Instagram bio: “If you dream it, you can do it.”
In his Facebook bio, there’s a quotation from Dante’s Inferno.
It reads: “And having turned our stern unto the morning, We of the oars made wings for our mad flight”.
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