Savoie: two teenagers swept away by an avalanche off-piste

More fear than harm. In Savoie, department still placed on Orange vigilance (new window) for snow-ice and avalanche, two teenagers enjoying off-piste skiing with their father in Val d'Isère were swept away by a snow slide this Monday, December 23. The avalanche occurred in the Bellevarde sector. The two victims “covered 150 meters in the flow“, indicates France Bleu (new window). “One was buried, the other was not“, and they ended their race by hitting trees, Cédric Bonnevie, director of the slopes service at the Savoyard resort, told AFP.

The teenagers were both equipped with avalanche detectors, and the father quickly pulled the buried one out of the snow. The station's trackers then took charge of the two young people, one injured in the head and the other in the leg, but without “vital emergency“, according to this same source. Throughout the Northern Alps, the snow cover is very unstable, with a high risk of avalanche (4 on a scale of up to 5). Due to these weather conditions, off-piste skiing or snowshoeing was strongly discouraged.

• Read also

  Orange vigilance in the Alps: how to find out about the avalanche risks for each massif

Savoie, like Haute-Savoie and Isère, were placed on Sunday by Météo-France on orange snow-ice and avalanche vigilance until Tuesday morning. Of “large avalanches“will trigger throughout the snowy episode, expected to last 48 hours, the French meteorological institute warned on Sunday, calling on everyone to exercise the greatest caution.”Tomorrow the weather will be nice. However, the risk (of avalanche) will not be less“, warns the Val d'Isère slopes director.