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STORYLINE: Authorities and survivors of a deadly avalanche on France's Mont Blanc say the disaster was nearly impossible to foresee. Climbers continued to set off up slopes in thick clouds on Friday, the day after an avalanche swept nine to their deaths and injured a dozen others. Two climbers were rescued as emergency crews using dogs and helicopters scoured the churned-up, high-altitude area in a frantic search for the missing. Three Britons, three Germans, two Spaniards and a Swiss climber were killed. Britain's ambassador to France, Sir Peter Ricketts spoke to reporters from the nearest town Chamonix. "There were no indications of an avalanche," he said , adding "they had a huge misfortune that the big chunk of ice detached further up and came through and carried away a number of them." "As one official here said to me here last night, they were doing nothing imprudent," he said. Authorities say the avalanche could have been caused by a sheet of ice breaking off, or by a climber inadvertently setting a slab loose. According to tweets from those on the mountain, high winds led to overhanging ice slabs forming on the slope. Several days ago Chamonix saw a monsoon-like downpour, which turned to snow at an altitude of 9,850 feet (3,000 metres). "Nothing alerted us, nothing indicated that the drama could happen," Chamonix's deputy mayor Jean-Louis Verdier said. However Verdier, who is also a mountain guide himself, said the conditions faced by the climbers were not uncommon in summer. "It is not surprising to have avalanches in high mountains (during summer). We are at four-thousand metres of altitude. When it is raining in the valley of Chamonix it is snowing higher," he explained. The Mont Blanc massif is a popular area for climbers, hikers and tourists but a dangerous one, with dozens dying on it each year. Chamonix, a global epicentre for serious alpine climbing, hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/800ae5afffdddd1f47cfcae803290eee Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork