Photo: Luca Calzone
A group of skiers participating in the Mezzalama Trophy over the weekend witnessed one of the most bizarre, and nearly tragic, events of this entire ski season. It all happened like a scene out of a movie, and one participant in the Italian ski-mountaineering race captured the moment on video.
A small tourist plane landed close to the group of skiers, who were on the skin trail along the Colle Sesia, a saddle on the route to the 4,634-meter summit of Monte Rosa (the second highest peak in the Alps after Mont Blanc). At the time, they were ascending toward Capanna Margherita, a hut near the border of Switzerland and Italy which is famously Europe’s highest building in terms of elevation. You can tell in the video that many of the skiers are probably in disbelief of what’s happening when the plane touches down, turns, and then takes off again. Surely, the pilot wouldn’t be maneuvering so recklessly close to dozens of civilians, right?
As mentioned, it was one of the oddest things you’ll see. The small plane does, in fact, casually turn on the impromptu runway and just as quickly as it touched down, it took off again. It narrowly splits several skiers who barely even broke stride.
“It could have been a terrible accident,” wrote Luca Calzone, who posted the footage online and requested that Swiss authorities investigate the incident further.
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