It's a race against time to save two mountaineers missing on Grignetta. For 36 hours now, the Alpine rescue team, in collaboration with the Guardia di Finanza, the Fire Department and the Carabinieri, has been looking for two people from Brianza who yesterday set off on an excursion on the mountain just outside Lecco.
Their car is still parked at Piani dei Resinelli, but there is no sign of them. The bad weather, with the darkness, risks complicating the operations even more. They are two skyrunners from Vimercate (Monza and Brianza).
Some witnesses reported that, two-thirds of the way up to the summit, they decided to turn back due to the rapidly worsening weather conditions. From that moment on, no one saw them again and they did not return home. The cell phone of one of the two was still on, but it was not located by the device on board the helicopter of the Lombardy Draghi of the firefighters that this afternoon, taking advantage of a window of good weather, searched the area from above. The searches carried out with drones equipped for thermal detection were negative, even the reclamation carried out by land on the primary routes and in the canals, including the Caimi, the Porta, the Cecilia and others, were unsuccessful .
The mountain rescue teams moved in an environment made difficult by snow and wind, which requires high-level technical skills. Canine units were also used. Other teams are ready to leave in the two helibases in the area, but the weather evolution will be decisive in establishing the strategies for the next few hours.
The snow that has fallen in the area is heavy and wet, the risk of avalanches is significant and the new worsening of weather conditions does not bode well.
More fortunate were the two hikers who this morning were extracted unharmed from an avalanche on Mount Cusna, which at 2,100 meters is the highest peak in the Reggio Emilia Apennines. A team from the Emilia-Romagna Alpine Rescue, already present in the area, quickly found the two swept away. Frightened by what happened, but without trauma and in good health.
And still in Emilia-Romagna, this evening the search began for a thirty-five-year-old who left home, on foot and without a cell phone.
(Online Union)
