Taiwanese mountaineer Chang Yuan-chih (張元植) has died after falling while hiking on the north face of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps and in western Europe, his family confirmed yesterday.
The accident happened at about 7am on Thursday when Chang, 36, was hiking the Plan de l’Aiguille area, his mother and wife said in a statement.
Chang has passed away, they said, and thanked everyone for their messages of condolences.
Photo: Screen grab from Chang’s Facebook page
TRAVELING TO FRANCE
Chang’s mother and wife said they were making arrangements to travel to France to bring his remains back to Taiwan.
“We will inform relatives and friends about the details of Yuan-chih’s accident in due course. Thank you all for your concern and encouragement,” they said.
A Franceinfo news report said that a 36-year-old Taiwanese was found without vital signs by rescuers after he fell 250m down a slope when hiking up a “non- technical” stretch on the snowy northern side of the mountain with a friend on Thursday.
Chang had not yet started using a safety rope at the time of the accident, the report said, and his body and the survivor were subsequently transported to the DZ des Bois in the nearby town of Chamonix, the report said.
THIN LINE
Aware of the potential dangers of mountain climbing, Chang once wrote on his social media account that mountaineering is a dangerous sport that can lead to death, but because there is a thin line between mountaineering and death, it is different from other sports, and enables people to appreciate what life is about.
Taiwan’s representative office in France said its consular affairs section received confirmation of the identity of the deceased from authorities in Chamonix at about 9am on Thursday.
Chang’s family in Taiwan has been informed of the incident, the office said, adding that it would offer assistance to the family in dealing with the aftermath of Chang’s death.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS