The body of a second skier swept away on Sunday in an avalanche in the Vosges mountains, near the summit of Hohneck, was found early Monday afternoon, announced the commander of the mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGM) of Haut-Rhin.
Read also: Vosges: a skier found alive, the body of the second found buried under the snow
The body of the 26-year-old young man was found around 1:30 p.m., buried in the snow, in the area where the search had been concentrated, said Major Philippe Viré, commander of the Haut-Rhin PGM, who led the rescue and investigation.
The body was found about 300 meters below the snowfall that swept away two skiers at midday on Sunday.
Rescuers had already found his skis, a stick and his backpack in this area.
"
The research focused on an avalanche deposition area 15 meters wide and about a hundred meters long, and up to three meters thick
," explained Major Philippe Viré. .
"
The body was found buried under 1.5 meters of snow
".
The victim's hiking companion was found as early as Sunday afternoon.
Slightly injured, he was still hospitalized on Monday, the victim mainly of major facial trauma.
The 28-year-old was equipped with an avalanche airbag bag, which presumably saved his life.
Neither skier, on the other hand, had an avalanche victim detector device.
Seventeen gendarmes and seven firefighters, including two dog teams, supported by the Haut-Rhin gendarmerie helicopter, participated in the search, which resumed Monday around 8:00 am.
The two cross-country skiers had left Hohneck on Sunday at midday and were on the Alsatian side of this summit of the Vosges massif which rises to more than 1300 meters, when the flow took them away.
The alert was given on Sunday around 1:00 p.m.
The authorities had called on walkers likely to visit the Vosges this weekend to be cautious after the heavy snowfall in recent days.
The Haut-Rhin prefecture had thus warned against "
the strong risk this weekend (...) of snowflows and avalanches on the steep slopes of the Vosges mountains
".
"
Snowflows, there are every year in the Vosges, but there are very few with victims,
" noted a member of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of the Vosges.
"
We are far from the figures that can be seen in the Alps or in the Pyrenees, but the mountain remains dangerous, whatever the massif
".
In February 2018 in the Vosges, a skier, swept away in a snow slide, had died after hitting a tree.