A 51-year-old cross-country skier died Tuesday evening in Savoie after being swept away in the late afternoon by an avalanche that triggered at the Aussois resort, mountain rescue services said.
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The victim, an experienced man who was advancing equipped with an avalanche victim detector (DVA), was at an altitude of 2,200 meters in the Combe des Balmes sector, upstream from the Aussois station, when he was caught in a casting.
The 50-year-old was accompanied by another skier on a black slope closed to the public at the time of the accident.
He was found 200 meters lower, shortly after 5:00 p.m., during an aerial reconnaissance of the High Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon (PGHM) of Modane.
This Tuesday afternoon, the Alps were bereaved by another fatal accident caused by an avalanche.
A backcountry skier in his fifties died in Isère after being buried by a flow in the town of Freney-d'Oisans.
The avalanche victim detector it was equipped with enabled emergency services to locate it quickly, but it took more than half an hour to clear it from more than three meters of snow.
The resuscitation initiated by the doctor on site did not save him, said the Peloton de gendarmerie de haute montagne (PGHM) of Isère, which intervened.