A British climber has been killed by an avalanche while climbing a frozen waterfall in Norway.
The man, who has not been identified, was scaling one of the three frozen Gaustatoppfossen waterfalls on the Gaustatoppen mountain in Telemark, in the southeast of Norway, on Friday when an avalanche rained down on him and a friend.
The avalanche of ice and snow buried the men underneath it and it took rescuers seven hours to reach them.
The British man suffered fatal injuries, with his body only being recovered on Tuesday afternoon due to bad weather impeding on rescue efforts.
His friend, reportedly a man in his 30s, has been injured and was airlifted to hospital via helicopter on Saturday afternoon after it took rescuers ‘several hours’ to reach him, the Sun reports.
The surviving man’s injuries are reportedly considered not life-threatening.
Jorn Knustad, a local climbing guide, said the British man died while doing a climb dubbed the Gausta Marathon, which ‘is about 17 rope lengths long and is the longest we have here’.
Knustad explained that the area where the two men were climbing was not popular with trippers as the icy slopes of the frozen waterfall take a long time to scale.
The man, who has not been identified, was scaling one of the three frozen Gaustatoppfossen waterfalls on the Gaustatoppen mountain in Telemark, in the southeast of Norway, on Friday when an avalanche rained down on him and a friend
‘It is unlikely that they were poorly trained – they would hardly have embarked on such a trip,’ he added.
‘A snow and ice avalanche is the cause of this incident.’
‘The two Gausta waterfalls rise over 800m giving a long day out for most,’ a description on forum UK Climbing reads.
The website also warns: ‘The climbing is never very difficult but you should be prepared for alpine conditions. Avalanche danger also a danger on the exit gullies.’
MailOnline has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.
