French Alps avalanche disaster as Brit mum and son killed while skiing off-piste
A British mother and son have died in an avalanche on the French Alps while skiing off -piste.
The 54-year-old woman and her son, aged 22, were part of a family group who were skiing on Mont Blanc while being supervised by a ski instructor who they are believed to have known for several years. The instructor, wearing an avalanche beacon, was unharmed despite being completely buried alongside the two Brits who perished.
Poor weather has led to treacherous conditions, with a hiker also tragically dying on another slope in the French Alps, according to local authorities. The avalanche took place at an altitude of 2,300 and it travelled around 400 metres and swept through an off-piste area of the Saint-Gervais-les-Bains ski resort yesterday at around 3.40pm, the administration for the Haute-Savoie region said in a statement.
Dozens of mountain rescuers set out to search for the trapped skiers by the Mont-Joly chairlift, finding the man and a women dead and one person injured, while rescuing five others including the husband of the female victim.
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"They were surprised by an avalanche around Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, while off-piste. They were in a group of eight people, made up of a ski instructor and his students, when they were hit at a height of around 2300 meters," said an investigating source.
"Three out of the eight skiers were buried in the snow, and a search party was mobilised very quickly, after an emergency alarm. The instructor was detected and pulled out, but the man and woman who were buried perished, following a far more complex and long search." They added: "The initial theory is that another party of skiers higher up triggered the avalanche."
A criminal case has been opened into the cause of the avalanche. Saint-Gervais Mayor Jean-Marc Peillex said the weather conditions were too unstable for such risky outings. "It rained, it snowed, it was warm. There are enough marked paths to ski on," he told BFM television. "It's terrible what happened. A family is decimated, and we are very sad in Saint-Gervais."
To the north of Mont Joly, a 31-year-old hiker was found dead after falling on the slope of the Ecrins mountain range. The hiker had veered away from hiking paths to look at mountain goats with a friend, local broadcaster France-Bleu cited rescuers as saying.
It comes as a 19-year-old British student was seriously injured when his sledge travelling at speed crashed into a tree last night. The student is being treated in hospital. It is understood the sledge lost control when a frost formed an icy crust on the snow at Mittelberg, Austria, as the student and five friends hurtled down the unlit slope.
Rescuers told local media the teen was unconscious and unresponsive when they got to him after the midnight crash, reported on December 29. The student, not named due to local privacy laws, was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Kempten.
A team of 25 rescuers from Mittelberg-Hirschegg Mountain Rescue Service and the Mittelberg fire brigade had been involved in finding the crash site. It is unclear how badly injured the other five crash victims were. The region is known for its ski resorts and pristine alpine scenery, with Mittelberg located at 1,200 metres.
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