A professional skier and his girlfriend died after falling more than 2,000 feet while mountaineering in the Italian Alps, the country’s sports officials said.
The deaths of Jean Daniel Pession and Elisa Arlian were reported by FISI, The Italian winter sports federation, which described this episode as an “accident” and a “terrible tragedy”.
Mr. Pession and Ms. Arlian, both Italian, were climbing a ridge on Saturday that divides the east and north faces of Mount Zerbion, a mountain in the Pennine Alps that they both knew well. As is often the case in climbs of this kind, they were linked together. They were alone, so we don’t know precisely how or why they fell.
When family members reported them missing, rescuers began searching. A helicopter equipped with equipment capable of detecting cell phone signals located their bodies. Italian television station TG3 reported that the two men were almost at the summit when they fell.
Ms. Arlian was a primary school teacher and ski instructor. Mr. Pession, 28 years old, had competed on the speed skiing World Cup circuit, in which athletes ski downhill trying to reach the fastest speed possible, often 125 miles per hour or more. He ranked 15th in the world rankings in 2021 and 33rd in 2022.
