SALLANCHES // "I'm gonna die now", Danish mountaineer Thomas Vybro thought as he was swept away by an Alpine avalanche that crushed the life out of nine of his companions.
Vybro, 30, his friend Alex Peterson, 29, and their guide Daniel Rosetto, 63, were lucky to be caught just by the edge of the sheet of snow and ice that crashed down on the party early Thursday, killing many more experienced climbers.
"It was really steep, we were climbing with ice axe, crampons on the boot," Vybro told AFP Friday from his hospital bed in Sallanches.
The two climbers described themselves as beginners, whose main feeling on the pre-dawn climb was frustration at the bad weather which prevented them from reaching the top of Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest peak.
Instead they had to settling for the slightly lower Mont Maudit, which means Cursed Mountain in French and still rises to 4,465 metres (14,650 feet).
Then, the avalanche struck close to them, "a lot of ice and hard snow", said Vybro, who works in life coaching in Copenhagen.
"I just think: if that hits me I would really be hurt. A split second after that it just hit us. After one or two seconds, I feel I can't stop, I hear my friend shouting and I shout back 'stop, stop, stop'."
The devastating snowslide, thought to have been caused by too many people being on Mont Maudit, the massif's third-highest peak, killed three Britons, three Germans, two Spaniards and a Swiss.
Twelve others were injured, including the two Danes and their guide, as the wall of snow tore off their ice axes, glasses and torches.
"That was terrible, I thought I would die, I really thought 'I'm gonna die now'. Because I'm sure I would hit something, that would kill us or we would go over a cliff. We were going so fast."
The two friends landed on top of each other and managed to dig themselves out of the snow and disentangle themselves from their rope. "Alex only had dislocated arms," said Vybro.
"Everybody says we are the luckiest people in the avalanche. We could dig ourselves out."
The pair then made their way to Rosetto, who had suffered a broken rib and a disclocated shoulder.
They heard people screaming and ran over to where the sounds were coming from, clawing their way with crampons through the snow and ice for an hour-and-a-half before emergency services arrived.
"I had a hard time breathing. I thought it was because of the altitude but it was because I had ice in the lungs," he said.
Of the six climbers that Vybro helped to dig out of the snow, two were already dead.
"The worst thing of course was to see these people we dug up were dead and other people were very bad, with broken legs, it was horrible," he said.
"We used the crampons to dig. It was only one metre but it was very hard to dig. The snow was very hard, it was very crazy."
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Roll of honour
Who has won what so far in the West Asia Premiership season?
Western Clubs Champions League - Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins; Runners up: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens - Winners: Dubai Exiles; Runners up: Jebel Ali Dragons
West Asia Premiership - Winners: Jebel Ali Dragons; Runners up: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
UAE Premiership Cup - Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins; Runners up: Dubai Exiles
West Asia Cup - Winners: Bahrain; Runners up: Dubai Exiles
West Asia Trophy - Winners: Dubai Hurricanes; Runners up: DSC Eagles
Final West Asia Premiership standings - 1. Jebel Ali Dragons; 2. Abu Dhabi Harlequins; 3. Bahrain; 4. Dubai Exiles; 5. Dubai Hurricanes; 6. DSC Eagles; 7. Abu Dhabi Saracens
Fixture (UAE Premiership final) - Friday, April 13, Al Ain – Dubai Exiles v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The Gentlemen
Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant
Three out of five stars