Five killed in French Alps Avalanches

Three separate incidents, and four avalanches, claimed the lives of five skiers and left two badly injured today.

Two young Belgians died in a huge slide in the Combes des Lanchettes above Villaroger (part of the Les Arcs ski area ). This tragedy is particularly poignant as it was in the same couloir in which a British season-worker died last year in similar conditions.

Another avalanche in Les Menuires claimed another skier.

A further slide at Les Deux Alpes took the life of one of a pair of off-duty pisteurs, apparently going to the aid of a further skier hit by an earlier avalanche (whom also perished).

It is distressing that all three of these incidents involved experienced skiers. The Avalanche Risk was Four (High) at Les Arcs and Three (Considerable) at Les Deux Alpes.

There is more information in this avalanche report from PisteHors.com (from whom we quote below) and (with discussion) here on Snowheads.

The underlying snow pack is fragile after two weeks of very cold weather has destructured the bonds between snow crystals. Warm weather, the zero isotherm was at 3000 meters today at les Arcs and les Deux Alps has also lead to some natural avalanche activity.

The Snow Pack is Fragile

Please, please, please… take avalanche awareness seriously when you’re out in the Alps. A Risk Level of Four or Five really is extremely dangerous and only expert skiers, experienced in avalanche risk assessment and avoidance, should even consider skiing off-piste in such conditions.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2006 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Avalanche News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.