After a thrilling night at 3.800 meters, the last 17 tourists stranded on the Mont Blanc cable car between Aiguille du Midi and Punta Helbronner returned to Courmayeur. They returned around 9am on Friday 9th September.
The gondola lift stopped, due to an entanglement of the cables, at 16,30 pm of the previous day, Thursday afternoon. Since then, the rescue operations have taken place in which four helicopters have participated, one of which is Italian from the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps. The rescuers worked tirelessly, then interrupted the evacuations twice: first when fog and low clouds enveloped some cabins, then when there were no longer adequate visibility conditions for the pilots, due to the dark. Some of the tourists were rescued by specialized personnel who moved between one cabin and another moving along the cables.
At 4 in the morning the weather forced a halt to rescue operations leaving 34 people hanging until dawn. It was then possible to put the cables back online and the suspended passengers descended on both sides, partly from the French side, partly (the last 17, including a 10-year-old boy) from the Italian one, "landing" at the Turin refuge and then from there down to Courmayeur.
The rescue machine worked very well, the passengers who went ashore reported. They weren't alone: about twenty rescuers and gendarmes joined them and spent the night with them. All were provided with water, food and blankets.
