Dark day in Haute-Savoie.
A skier and a mountaineer were killed on Wednesday in two separate avalanches that were triggered in the Mont-Blanc massif, where the outings are made dangerous by the snow conditions, indicate the mountain rescue services.
The first carried and buried, around 10:30 am, a 23-year-old skier moving downhill with a 26-year-old friend on the west face of the Cosmiques corridor, which rises to an altitude of 3600 meters.
The victim was at the head of the duo when a wind slab broke off under his skis and carried him away for 500 meters.
LP / infographic infographics / LP
His body was located at the foot of the flow by his companion and other skiers using the Avalanche Victim Detector (DVA) system.
The young man was then extracted by the rescuers of the high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM) of Chamonix, who tried in vain to revive him.
He was originally from the Chamonix valley, specifies France 3.
Seasoned mountaineer
The second avalanche was fatal to a very experienced 61-year-old mountaineer, who progressed with crampons on his feet at an altitude of 3,750 meters, on the south face of the Cosmiques ridge.
The flow started when the sixty-year-old passed by shortly before 12:45 p.m. and swept him away for nearly 300 meters in a corridor.
The victim was located by high mountain guides using a probe, then extracted from the snow with a shovel by the rescuers of the PGHM of Chamonix.
"The significant accumulations of snow in the area, partly due to the wind, require great vigilance, even a renunciation," warned Colonel Stéphane Bozon, commander of this unit specializing in helping victims in perilous environments. “We are in winter conditions, with more than a meter of snow in places. It is a chance that we did not have more deaths today ”, he added.
