A mountain guide captured what he thought to be a mountaineer’s last interaction with humanity before his death. The man was attempting to climb the Matterhorn on the border of Italy and Switzerland without proper equipment. A solo mountaineer later fell to his death, and the mountaineering community wondered if it was the same man. In fact, three mountaineers died on the mountain in the span of just one week.
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Eukeni Soto was guiding a client on the Matterhorn on August 16 when they came across a mountaineer who appeared to be wearing microspikes and carrying a day pack. The man was ascending the mountain solo. The guide and client had already summited and were on their descent when they crossed paths with the solo mountaineer.
“As usual on the Hornli Route, I was downclimbing and guiding my client at a speedy pace, but I couldn’t help stopping in my tracks for a moment and film the climber with my cell phone,” Soto told ExplorersWeb.
Soto later posted the video to Instagram as a warning to others before he heard a solo climber had died that day. He wrote: “A guy climbing the fixed ropes on Matterhorn without equipment. It’s amazing to see how far this guy has come without any equipment or knowledge.”
Later, he had reason to believe the mountaineer didn’t make it back down the mountain.
An official police report (translated from German into English) reads:
“On August 16, 2024, a mountaineer fell from the Matterhorn in Zermatt, sustaining fatal injuries. At around 2:40 p.m., a third party reported the fall of a mountaineer who was descending from the summit of the Matterhorn via the Hörnligrat. For reasons still unknown, the person, who was presumably climbing alone, fell at an altitude of around 4,200, around 800 meters over the north face onto the Matterhorn glacier below.”
A Controversial Video, A Deadly Mountain
In Soto’s video, you can see the man climbing a fixed rope, glancing back at the other mountaineers. In the background, someone is saying a vulgar phrase in Spanish expressing irritation and disappointment in the man’s choices.
Watch it here (warning: vulgar language in Spanish):
In the comments section of Soto’s post, many people express their outrage that the man was climbing without crampons, a helmet, or even rope. Some people asked Soto about the outcome, and he linked to articles announcing the death of a solo climber from the same day he took the video.
The person who died that day was the third mountaineer to succumb to the Matterhorn that week. The other two climbers had set out from the Hörnli Hut on the morning of August 14 and did not return. A search party discovered they had both died after falling 1,000 meters.
Zermatt: Tödlicher Sturz am Matterhorn
— Polizei Wallis (@PolizeiWallis) August 16, 2024
Am 14. August 2024 sind zwei Bergsteiger am Matterhorn über tausend Meter in die Tiefe gestürzt. Sie zogen sich dabei tödliche Verletzungen zu.https://t.co/5QsnqpbRwJ pic.twitter.com/wzOrw4rYQL
UPDATE 8/30/24
A social media post, presumably from the solo mountaineer Soto captured on video, details the man’s climb up the Matterhorn over the course of August 15 and 16. The man claims he didn’t summit and stopped before the last snow slope due to his lack of appropriate equipment. He descended safely and shared a screenshot of his route.
This story is still developing.
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In all due respect, has this article been fact checked?
Has the man in the film been identified as the fallen victim or are you assuming? As someone who spoke to this guy and advised him to turn around without the proper equipment, I’m genuinely curious.
The police media are yet to release any further information on the victim on the 16th. Their current update/additions release also does not correctly link the victim of the 16th with the outcome eg they state “injured person” .
Hey Liam, you’re correct, still presumption at this point. I updated the language to make that more clear. I’ll reach out via email to see if you have anything to add to the story since you were on the mountain that day.