Another blow of fate for musician Five dead in mountain accident in Valais - Linard Bardill's son also dies

The son of well-known singer-songwriter Linard Bardill also died in the fatal avalanche accident on the Rimpfischhorn. The 38-year-old was an experienced alpinist and father.

The ski tour group had set off at dawn, well prepared and experienced - but the tour came to a fatal end on the summit ridge of the 4199-metre-high Rimpfischhorn in Valais. Five people lost their lives in a fall on the south face on May 24. One of them was the 38-year-old son of musician and writer Linard Bardill. This has now also been confirmed by public obituaries, as CH Media reports.

The man from the Zurich Oberland leaves behind a young family and was active as a tour leader with the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC). He was considered experienced in the scene. Together with four other ski mountaineers, including a woman, he had climbed up from the Britannia hut.

Why the group split into two rope teams on the last section before the summit - a group of three and a group of two - remains unclear. Investigators are also looking into why a pair of skis was found below in the glacier, although they should have been deposited in the depot on the saddle.

According to the police, the alpinists may have triggered a snow slab on a narrow ridge. Three of the casualties were found on the Adler Glacier, two others in the rocky slopes further up.

Another stroke of fate for Bardill

The avalanche bulletin had forecast a "moderate" danger for the day. There was only around 20 centimetres of fresh snow in the region - but that can be enough at steep high altitudes.

The accident also hit the Wetzikon hospital hard, where two of the victims were working. In an internal statement, the hospital writes of the "painful loss" of two long-standing employees. Both were "very special people", it continues.

For Linard Bardill, it is yet another stroke of fate. He lost his father in an accident at a young age, and later his mother narrowly escaped death in a car accident.

Bardill, who has been singing for terminally ill children in hospitals for many years, only released a CD on the subject of dying last year. Now reality is hitting him hard.