Three people, including a Pole and a Briton, were killed by avalanches on Tuesday in the French Alps: two skiers who were off-piste and a hiker swept away by a large snow slab.
Five skiers were skiing off-piste in the morning in the commune of La Grave, in Haute-Savoie (east), when an avalanche was triggered, the Gap public prosecutor’s office said.
Upon arriving at the scene, rescuers found two individuals “in cardio-respiratory arrest” and were unable to resuscitate them. Two other skiers, a German and an Australian, were unharmed.
The victims were two men in their thirties, one of Polish nationality born in 1987, and the other of British nationality, originally from Poland and residing in Switzerland, born in 1989, according to the Gap prosecutor, Marion Lozac’hmeur.
A French guide supervising the group was evacuated “by road to the Grenoble University Hospital,” the same source added.
The prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation “to determine the causes of death.”
The avalanche risk in the La Grave area, on La Meije mountain, was rated “high” on Tuesday, 4 out of 5, due to the combination of fresh snowfall and wind, according to the Météo-France website.
In Valloire, in Savoie, where the risk was at its maximum (5 out of 5), a large-scale avalanche swept away several hikers late in the morning about 2.5 kilometers from the resort, according to local authorities.
One person died, two suffered multiple injuries, and one person was unharmed, authorities added.
On Friday, also in Savoie, three skiers, including two Britons, were killed in an off-piste avalanche in Val d’Isère, the day after a rare “red alert” day in the department.
These new deaths bring to 28 the number of people who have lost their lives in avalanches in France since the start of the season, including six during a tragic weekend on January 10–11.
