In Savoie, two off-piste skiers spend the night stranded at an altitude of 2,300 m near Val d'Isère

The Dutch skiers joined the rescue during the night, but were initially unable to give their position.

Two Dutch skiers aged 43 and 74 spent the night of Tuesday January 14 to Wednesday January 15 stranded in an off-piste area of ​​the Val d'Isère ski area in Savoie, according to “ici Pays de Savoie”. They were saved by the CRS Alpes after spending six hours in the cold.

Wednesday, around one o'clock in the morning, two Dutch skiers managed to reach the emergency services. They say they are stranded in an off-piste area, near the Val d'Isère ski area in Savoie, but are then unable to explain their exact position in English. The CRS Alpes rescuers left Albertville to try to locate them, surveying the trails on quad bikes to try to find them, without success. The Val d'Isère station came as reinforcements and supported the emergency services with a snow groomer.

It was only much later that the two Dutchmen were located on the Malpasset off-piste, at an altitude of 2,300 meters. The two CRS Alpes rescuers were forced to finish on ski touring to be able to reach them.

The two Dutch skiers were located at 6:45 a.m. and were “technically blocked”. “They have rock bars above, below and are surrounded by avalanche slopes, it’s very complicated”explains Paul Bellon, head of the CRS Alpes detachment in Albertville. The two Dutch people were then rescued by helicopter.

Thanks to a temperature inversion, it wasn't too cold at 2,300 meters above sea level last night: around -5°C. The two skiers did not suffer from serious hypothermia and were safe. “When a complex intervention ends like this, we are happy”concludes Paul Bellon.