A young Quebec entrepreneur lost her life this Thursday in an avalanche while trying to climb the highest peak in Ecuador.
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“The sky was beautiful, everything was perfect. With a gust of wind, an avalanche carried Rébecca and Éloi,” said Jeff Thibault-Flynn, a friend of the couple, in a telephone interview with The newspaper.
Rébecca Dinelle, 25, and her boyfriend Éloi Larrivee, 24, wanted to complete the climb of the Chimborazo volcano, located 180 km south of the capital Quito, when an avalanche alarm was triggered at around 8:30 a.m. on Thursday morning.
The avalanche would have occurred for reasons still unknown, the National Service for Risk and Emergency Management of Ecuador said on Twitter.
Éloi Larrivee emerged unscathed from this heavy snowfall.
“Once he regained consciousness, he went to dig up Rebecca. When she was discovered, after several resuscitation maneuvers, she was dead. He called the emergency services and descended the mountain, ”explained Mr. Thibault-Flynn.
perilous climb
The authorities then had to climb to an altitude of 5750 meters in order to reach the base camp where the body of Mr.me Dinelle.
They finally got there around 7 p.m. Thursday night.
Photo taken from Facebook
A team of rescuers had to go to an altitude of 5750 meters to recover the remains of Rébecca Dinelle on Thursday after the tragic avalanche.
The rescue group of the Ecuadorian Association of Mountain Guides and firefighters from the Riobamba region, in particular, were called to the scene to bring the remains of the young woman from Saint-Hubert to the ground, on the Rive -South of Montreal.
“It’s very complicated with the snow. My advice would be not to attempt the ascent of Chimborazo right now,” one of the rescuers told local media.
One of the local firefighters was also injured by tripping with his crampons, said Orlando Vallejo, head of the Riobamba fire brigade.
nightmarish journey
The couple had gone to climb the popular summit of more than 6000 meters without a guide, since Éloi Larrivee was an experienced mountaineer.
Courtesy picture
The couple had just joined in Ecuador.
Rébecca Dinelle had joined her boyfriend in Ecuador a few days earlier, he who was finishing a five-month journey in South America where he had climbed the five highest peaks on the continent.
“She was supposed to come back on Monday, it was her last ascent before returning to Quebec,” said Mr. Thibault-Flynn.
Young entrepreneur
Passionate about mountain biking and extreme sports, Rébecca Dinelle owned a communications agency with Jeff Thibault-Flynn for four years in McMasterville, Montérégie.
“She was a woman with many ambitions, projects and dreams. The adventure was at the heart of everything”, recalled the partner of 3 Sphères Communications.
Several employees also wanted to pay him a last tribute on social networks.
“I hope there are the highest mountains and the most beautiful sunsets where you are,” wrote Kim Morissette.
“Take flight, my friend, and make the most beautiful of trips as you know how to do them so well,” continued his colleague Sabrina Faucher.
The Chimborazo volcano in brief
Photo archives, AFP
The glacier of the Chimborazo volcano
- The 6293 meter peak, which sits in the Andes, is the tallest in Ecuador and one of the tallest volcanoes in the world.
- Due to its location near the equator, the summit of this volcano is the farthest point on the planet from the center of the Earth.
- In October 2021, an avalanche took 16 Ecuadorians there. Five of them died and one climber is still missing.
- Almost 30 years earlier, in November 1993, 10 mountaineers had died at almost the same
place. - This volcano represents a minimal risk of eruption, the last dating back to around the year 550.
Sources: Smithsonian Institute Global Volcanism Program and Ecuadorian Association of Mountain Guides