TORONTO – There are still hopes of finding alive Marco Di Marcello, the Italian-Canadian mountaineer missing since Monday in the Nepalese Himalayas. Confirmation that he and the other Italian still missing (Markus Kirchler from South Tyrol, Italy) have not yet been declared dead came today from the Italian Foreign Ministry. And for Marco there is one more sign that gives hope: his GPS’ signal.

“The local authorities – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website states, here – have confirmed the deaths of three Italian climbers — Alessandro Caputo, Stefano Farronato, and Paolo Cocco. There remains no news of seven other Italian nationals, including Marco Di Marcello and Markus Kirchler, both of whom were in the Yalung Ri area and are currently reported missing…”.

Caputo and Farronato were killed by an avalanche last Friday while climbing Mount Panbari (6,887 meters); Cocco, Di Marcello, and Kirchler disappeared on Monday—along with other climbers—while ascending the 6,300-meter peak of Dolma Khang. Five other Italians have been unreachable since yesterday, but it’s unclear, as of this writing, whether anything has happened to them.

Returning to Di Marcello, there is still hope for him because his GPS continues to indicate movement. At 8:44 PM (Italian time) on Tuesday, a new signal arrived from Marco’s satellite device, which recorded a new movement, following the one at 4:44 PM also on Tuesday. And the family believes it, as reported (here) by the Italian online newspaper “Il Trafiletto” of Teramo, the city (in the region of Abruzzo) where Marco was born.

“Marco is alive, we are convinced of it” says his brother Gianni Di Marcello. “The GPS’ route shows short movements, sometimes uphill, as if he was looking for a safe place. We think he has found shelter or is trying to be located by rescuers”. At home with him, in Villa Zaccheo, a hamlet of Castellalto, in the Teramo area, his parents Franco, a former deputy police commissioner, and Antonietta are following every signal with hope. “Marco is experienced and determined” they explain. “He has faced difficult situations in the past, and we are certain he is holding out even now”.

“We know that the weather conditions in those areas are prohibitive” Gianni adds, “but every new signal is proof to us that Marco is alive and fighting”. Indeed, we’re talking about a highly experienced mountaineer and climber with an intimate knowledge of those places: he’s a member of the Canadian Alpine Guides Association (Marco lives in Calgary, Alberta, and has dual citizenship, Italian and Canadian), he’s a biologist and explorer with the international “Explora Nunaat” team since 2011, and, as we mentioned, he has a deep knowledge of those areas of Nepal, and the Himalayas in particular, which he considers his second home. All of these factors, combined with the signals sent by his GPS, give hope.

In the pic above, Marco Di Marcello (photo from his Facebook profile)