Alpine sightseeing
Looking at the radar (I know - retrospect again) it looks very much like one wouldn't have seen much (if flying at the MEA) on the flight in question (if this was the reason why they were over the mountains in the first place). Below MEA you take your life in your hands flying in that kind of terrain. It would undoubtedly have been a very uncomfortable ride with icing and CBs to negotiate and even as a pilot I would have been seriously unhappy to be aboard that aircraft on that route on that day at that height.
Call be a coward but the only time I would take the route through the mountains would be in really good VFR conditions (even if I was filed IFR) with no frontal activity forecast and usually in the airway talking to ATC with TAWS and TCAS switched on.
TAWS helps you check where the spiky granite really is - very useful if you are crossing the Alps at night and can't see a thing - it reassures you that you are in fact in the middle of the airway (and usually shows you why the airway is where it is).
Once again a tragic waste of life,
SB