Sad news: Top French ultra / trail runner Esteban Olivero found DEAD at bottom of mountain

Here is a longer article in English:

runnerstribe.com

Honoring Esteban Olivero: A Bright Trail Running Star Remembered After Tragic Loss

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This is very tragic and sad.

I could be wrong, but when trying to translate the article to English I'm pretty sure it says he suffered a fall off the mountain (from climbing back up to a point after skiing down). The area cited looks quite technical and steep with cliffs and glaciers etc.

It is not uncommon for mountain-ultra-trail runners to be all around mountain athletes and do other disciplines like technical rock/ice climbing/alpinism/ ski mountaineering etc.

The mountains can be very technical and full of all sorts of dangers like avalanches, rock fall, sheer cliff exposure, crevasses, etc.

RIP.

Doing stuff in winter in the mountains is at least 10 times as dangerous as in summer.

Avalanches, rock falls, misjudgments, exposure to cold.....

That is super sad. Think of all the lost joy and potential and life... That sucks.

As for the mountains being dangerous, that is true. I lost a climbing partner (and his brother) to exposure in the Alps. They didn't fall or anything either; one of them just had a minor injury, they were soaking wet, and got stuck in a spot where they couldn't go up or down. A night of low temps and roaring wind was what killed them.

Today I did a trail run in the mountains and was dressed for running, not mountaineering. And since I was running alone, breaking my ankle or falling on my face could have been pretty catastrophic.

I am in the French Alps now. I can see mont blanc. The mont blanc massif is one of the most dangerous sporting areas in the world. Many people die summer and winter. The experienced mountaineers are not immune since in one of our most dangerous local spots, the idiots at the top unleash the cornices on those below.

Thoughts and prayers.

I have 2 words for you. Or maybe 3. Garmin inReach.

Very sad, but don’t do dangerous activities solo in the winter and you’ll live longer.

I have three letters for you RIP

I live in California and spend a fair share of time scrambling up peaks in the Sierra Nevada every year.

every year, a dozen + people die by falling on their heads in a field of boulders, dangerous creek crossings, avalanches in the winter etc…even the very experienced ones.
always assess your comfort level and be ready to turn around if things don’t feel right. I have turned around on some objectives quite a few times over the years. You can always come back.

Fair enough. But yes, I did turn back on the summit ridge yesterday because I thought all other climbers/hikers would probably only do the first (west) summit and that if I ran over to the central and east summit and got hurt, probably nobody would find me until my wife reported me missing (and that might be too late).

Those are the kind of calculations we all have to make in the mountains. I was willing to "risk it" to a certain point as long as I was on the main route because I knew other people would be on the trail. But once I was off the route, I knew it was not safe (no phone, no Spot/InReach).

The problem is, if I were 22 years old and a total stud runner, I might have kept going. But are those elite mountain runners really that much less susceptible to objective dangers like rock fall, broken ankles, avalanche, etc? I don't think so.

p.s. I hope it is clear that I love and support all those people who embrace the human spirit like Olivero. Are we not jealous of those people who go into the wilderness to live deliberately and to see if they can learn what it has to teach? Do we not all want to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life?

Thoreau is a nice idea but not in practice. I don’t want to die in the wilderness running like a goofus around boulders and ice. Be better, use common sense and stop aggrandizing

Yes. I hear that loud and clear. I don't want to die by face-planting running down a single-track trail on snow either...

But if the only way to guarantee that is never to do runs like that, then well, that is not happening either.

Today, for example, I went back up the mountain and nabbed the east summit. There were no other people up there and that was a huge part of what made it worth it. I can't spend my whole life just running around on bike paths in my town. Sometimes the mountains do call out to us and we must go...

May I ask where you are? I was on the other side of the mountain, in Aosta and Courmayeur, earlier this year and dream of visiting in the Winter. I was also in Val Veny a few years ago. There are few places more beautiful than that area...