Hiker plummets 1,000 feet to her death after slipping on ledge: ‘She was screaming’

A woman plummeted 1,000 feet to her death after slipping off the edge of a cliff while hiking on a mountain in Italy.

“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, where the accident took place.

The disaster occurred around 4 p.m. on Sunday while Masocco, who lived in Feltre, was hiking with three friends in the Dolomites, the highest peak in which measures nearly 11,000 feet tall, Newsflash reported.

They were reportedly walking single file along a ledge through a pass, when the alpinist slipped and fell “screaming” into a ravine and out of sight, witnesses told the outlet.

Her horrified hiking companions subsequently called emergency services, who dispatched a rescue helicopter to the scene. However, by the time they reached Masocco, she was already dead, per their reports.

Needless to say, the community was rocked by the mountaineer’s untimely passing.

“In these hours, no words can soothe the intimate suffering of the mother, younger sister and friends,” mourned Fusaro. “I want to express to them the sincere closeness of the entire community, who joins in an embrace to their great pain.”

The tragedy follows a rash of hiking deaths around the globe.

In September, a 79-year-old man fell to his death while hiking with his two daughters at Purling Brook Falls in Springbrook, Australia.

Meanwhile, in August, two hikers died days apart after falling off separate cliffs located less than five miles apart in Oregon.