On Monday the pair were traversing the Valle Blanche from Hellbroner towards the Aiguille du Midi when two-thirds of the way across decided to un-rope each other so one of the men could hold back to take some photos.
Half an hour later the leader was still without his partner so called him on his mobile only to learn he had fallen down a crevasse.

At 11:00 the Italian man gave the alert to the PGHM (rescue services) who kept in contact with the man by telephone but the initial search proved fruitless and by 14:00 the telephone signal was lost - the battery had died.

The PGHM upped their numbers and 14 men roped in pairs started a rigorous search of the terrain and later a helicopter equipped with thermal imaging was sent out from Lyon.

By nightfall the man could still not be localised and the search had to be post-poned until first light

This time at 7:00 on Tuesday, 14 French and 4 Italian set off to continue the search for the man and finally after two hours of searching found the man.

The Italian man was pulled out of the crevasse and suffering from dehydration and hypothermia was taken to hospital for treatment.