The avalanche which killed a total of six people on Sunday in the Mont-Blanc massif is one of the most serious in France for twenty years.
The deadliest avalanche in recent decades in France took place on
February 10, 1970 (39 deaths at the UCPA center in Val d'Isère)
.
In addition,
on April 16, 1970, 71 people, including 56 children
, were killed by a mudslide and snow
at the sanatorium of the Plateau d'Assy
(Haute-Savoie).
Here are the ones that have killed at least four people since 2002:
2021: 11 deaths
- May 8: seven people die in two avalanches in the Alps, the first in Valloire (Savoie), in the Col du Galibier sector, and the second in the Vanoise massif, on the other side of the department.
- May 3: five people lost their lives in two separate avalanches, three cross-country skiers swept away in the Écrins massif (Hautes-Alpes) and two other people in the Ailefroide sector (Isère).
2018: 4 deaths
- March 2: four French ski tourers are killed and a fifth injured by an avalanche in Entraunes (Alpes-Maritimes) while their guide is found safe and sound.
The group evolved at the gates of the Mercantour National Park, far from any ski area.
2016: 11 deaths
- January 18: an avalanche carries away eleven soldiers during training on a track in Valfréjus (Savoie).
Five were killed instantly and a sixth died on January 25.
2015: 13 deaths
- September 15: seven mountaineers are killed in the Écrins massif, in the town of Pelvoux.
- January 24: six experienced skiers from the French Alpine Club are killed by an avalanche in Ceillac (Hautes-Alpes).
2013: 4 deaths
- March 5: four mountaineers from the French Alpine Club, originally from Rennes, were swept away and killed in an icefall in the Goulotte des Enfers, in the town of Crévoux (Hautes-Alpes).
Only their guide survived.
2012: 9 deaths
- July 12: an avalanche at Mont Maudit, in the Mont-Blanc massif, kills 9 people, of Swiss, German, British and Spanish nationalities.
This is the deadliest avalanche in ten years.
2011: 4 deaths
- January 11: four skiers who ski off-piste with an instructor are swept away and found dead in Val-d'Isère.
2008: 8 deaths
- August 24: a gigantic avalanche on the north face of Mont-Blanc du Tacul (Haute-Savoie), at an altitude of 3600 m, kills four Germans, three Swiss and an Austrian.
2006: 5 dead
- January 19: Five off-piste skiers die in different places in the Alps.
2002: 10 deaths
- December 8: four ski tourers die in La Grave (Hautes-Alpes).
- March 4: six skiers perish in the Manchet valley, in Val d'Isère (Savoie).
