Five skiers tragically lost their lives in two separate avalanches in the French Alps on Wednesday. Four Norwegian skiers were killed in an avalanche in the Val-Cenis area of Savoie, while a Swiss skier died further north in Haute-Savoie near Chamonix.
The Norwegian skiers were part of a group of seven, with three of them dying instantly and a fourth woman succumbing to injuries in a nearby hospital after severe hypothermia and cardiac arrest. They had been skiing off-piste, an inherently more dangerous activity, and were equipped with avalanche beacons.
The Swiss victim, a 30-year-old woman, was skiing with her brother and father, both of whom were also off-piste in the Mont Blanc massif. The father was unharmed, and the brother was taken to the hospital. This tragic event follows the death of a Brazilian-Portuguese skier in a large avalanche on Mont Blanc on Tuesday.
