Chimborazo Avalanche Tragedy. On November 10, a number of climbers left the Whymper Hut on Chimborazo to climb to the summit. A French guide, Bruno Douillet, and eight clients set out for the summit, but three of them turned back in the cold. Another party composed of two Ecuadorians and a Swiss and a third made up of three French and an Ecuadorian made rapid progress to the top ahead of them and started back down. When Douillet and the remaining five French were part way down from the summit, they came to a break in the windslab and realized that a gigantic avalanche had occurred. Both the other two parties and their three French companions had been carried away and died in the avalanche. A large number of mountaineers, including even several from France, searched the debris and recovered the bodies.