NNA - Helicopters were combing an area near the Matterhorn mountain in Switzerland on Monday with hope fading of finding a missing skier after five other members of the party were found dead after freezing to death in "catastrophic" conditions.

The cross-country skiers, five of them members of the same family from Valais canton, went missing near the 3,710 metre-high Tête Blanche mountain on Saturday on the Zermatt-Arolla path.

Authorities have not given the cause of death for the five found late on Sunday but described "catastrophic" conditions with snow storms, high winds and extreme temperatures.

"Our priority is to find that sixth person," Christian Varone, cantonal police chief, told journalists.

"As long as there is hope we will do all we can, but we have to be realistic about the conditions that person has lived through over the past 48 hours."

Mountain guide Anjan Truffer told Swiss broadcaster SRF that two of the bodies had to be dug out from beneath the snow.

"The end result was clear, the people froze to death. They got caught in a storm, probably lost their bearings and didn't know what to do." He said that rescuers advised them to dig a snow cave after one of them sounded the alarm.

"You could see that they tried, but unfortunately they were very poorly equipped and with those little shovels in the hard snow, there wasn't much they could do."--Reuters 

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