Double mountain tragedy in the Como province: two hikers dead, one in Val Cavargna and one in Eupilio
On Saturday, October 10, two men aged 62 and 58 were found dead at the end of two separate search operations. The alarm was raised in the late afternoon: firefighters, mountain rescue, Carabinieri and 118 crews were deployed.
Translated from the Italian original. Leggi in italiano
A black Saturday on the mountains of the Como province. Two men, aged 62 and 58, were found dead on the evening of Saturday, October 10, at the end of two separate search operations in two different locations. The alarm was raised in the late afternoon, when the Como provincial fire brigade command was activated to track down the two men, who had gone missing in different areas. The searches ended in the evening with the discovery of the lifeless bodies and their subsequent recovery.
Two separate tragedies, unfolding hours apart: the first in Val Cavargna, in the upper-lake area, the second in Eupilio, on the border between the provinces of Como and Lecco. In both cases the rescue teams worked for hours, from late afternoon into the evening, until the bodies were found and recovered.
The victims
The first man, a 62-year-old mushroom forager, was found at Malè, in the municipality of Cusino, in Val Cavargna. He had gone out to pick mushrooms in the upper-lake mountains and had not been heard from during the day, until the rescue operation was launched.
The second, a 58-year-old man, had gone missing in Eupilio, on the border between the provinces of Como and Lecco. Both were Italian, according to the outlets that followed the story between Saturday evening and Sunday.
The rescue operation
The rescue apparatus deployed in the two areas was substantial. For the Val Cavargna searches, the Como firefighters and colleagues from the Dongo and Menaggio detachments intervened, while the Erba and Canzo detachments operated in Eupilio. SAF specialists, experts in interventions in hard-to-reach environments, and TAS operators, specialized in rescue topography and search coordination, were also mobilized. Operators specialized in IMSI Catcher systems, arriving from Lecco and Milan, helped locate the mobile phones, while drones from the SAPR unit flew over the areas concerned. Mountain rescue, the Carabinieri and 118 medical personnel were also on site.
The investigation
The bodies have been placed at the disposal of the judicial authority. Investigations are underway to clarify the causes of the two deaths and reconstruct the circumstances of the tragedies: no further details on what happened have been released so far, as all outlets concordantly report.
