Mariacristina Masocco: Hiker falls 1,000ft to her death after slipping as horrified friends heard her screams
FELTRE, ITALY: A passionate hiker fell more than 1,000 feet to her death after slipping off the edge of a cliff on a mountain. Her horrified friends discovered she was missing after hearing her screams.
26-year-old Mariacristina Masocco, from the town of Feltre, Italy, lost her life after she plummeted off the edge of a cliff while climbing the Punta del Comedon in the Dolomite mountains on Sunday, November 20. Local reports suggest she was walking ahead of the group on their descent down the 7,600ft peak after they reached the summit at around 4 pm. The three others were together at a spot behind Masocco when they suddenly heard her screaming and rocks sliding.
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According to the Daily Mirror, the group quickly hiked to the source of the sound and began calling out Masocco after being unable to locate her, but in vain. They immediately called for an emergency rescue, and a responding helicopter tragically discovered the 26-year-old's body laying on a ledge below a cliff.
Rescuers, however, couldn't reach Mariacristina's body until the next day due to difficult weather conditions. They reportedly took three of her friends down to the location. Masocco's death rocked the local community back in Feltre, where she is survived by her mother Angela, and sister Francesca. “The news that arrived this evening of the tragic death of the young Maria Cristina Masocco, which took place in the afternoon in the mountains, strikes us in a truly profound way,” lamented Viviana Fusaro, the mayor of Feltre, Belluno, located in the region of Veneto. “In these hours, no words can soothe the intimate suffering of the mother, younger sister, and friends,” Fusaro mourned. “I want to express to them the sincere closeness of the entire community, who joins in an embrace to their great pain.”
Mariacristina, whose late father was a local councilor in her hometown, was remembered as an experienced hiker who aspired to become a lawyer someday. A funeral has been arranged by her loved ones and is scheduled on Thursday, November 24, at 2.30 pm local time in the Feltre Cathedral.
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The tragedy comes amid a spate of hiking deaths reported across the globe. MEAWW recently reported how a Scottish hiker tragically died after falling from a mountain in the Highlands on September 17. 46-year-old Lachlan Macdonald, from Glasgow, was walking through Forcan Ridge on The Saddle at around noon when he lost his footing and fell backward off a rock face near the Isle of Skye. Scotland police responded to the location and managed to recover the climber's body with the assistance of the HM Coastguard helicopter and the Kintail and Glenelg mountain rescue teams.
MEAWW also reported how a woman was hiking with her friends in Oregon's Columbus River gorge, a well-known tourist destination when she fell 100 feet off a trail and sustained significant head injuries. The incident occurred on August 19 on the Multnomah Falls-Larch Mountain Trail, some 30 miles east of Portland, Oregon, according to the authorities. Responding emergency workers discovered bystanders giving the woman CPR. She was, nonetheless, declared dead on the spot.