Two dead, one missing after avalanches in French Alps
Grenoble, France, (MILLAT ONLINE):Avalanches in the French Alps on Sunday killed two skiers, one of them Belgian, while a search was launched for a missing Swiss hiker, a local official said.
The deaths add to the toll in the French mountains from avalanches since Friday.
The two victims died during simultaneous avalanches around lunchtime, while skiing off-piste from the Vallorcines resort in the Chamonix-Mont Blanc region.
One of the skiers was dug out of the snow alive but died hours later in hospital, The second, the Belgian skier was found dead.
An hour earlier, at Samoens near the Swiss border, a Swiss hiker was swept away by another avalanche. Bad weather forced searchers to abandon their efforts to find him five hours later.
The man’s wife was also buried in snow but escaped with only minor injuries.
On Saturday two Spanish skiers were killed when an avalanche hit a group skiing off-piste on a mountain in southeastern France.
A day earlier four skiers were killed in the Mercantour National park in the French Alps, the deadliest avalanche of the winter so far.