During an off-piste outing near the La Norma resort in Haute-Maurienne, a woman in her forties was swept away in an avalanche. Despite the intervention of the Savoie high mountain gendarmes, the victim was declared dead.
Company
From daily life to major issues, discover the subjects that make up local society, such as justice, education, health and family.
France Télévisions uses your email address to send you the “Society” newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Our privacy policy
Teams from the Modane high mountain gendarmerie platoon were contacted around 12:30 p.m. by a witness to an avalanche that occurred near the La Norma station in Haute-Maurienne. A group of three friends who left in the morning for an off-piste area found themselves trapped.
While the group was moving in the Saint-Antoine valley sector in Savoie, a woman aged around forty triggered an avalanche as she passed by. His two friends, who witnessed the scene, then alerted the emergency services.
The Choucas 73 helicopter carrying six PGHM gendarmes, a dog handler and a doctor from the Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne SAMU was quickly dispatched to the scene. To carry out their research, the soldiers were supported by four trackers and a dog handler from the La Norma station.
After 45 minutes of searching, the emergency services finally found the victim. Buried under 120 centimeters of snow, the forty-year-old was declared dead by the SAMU doctor despite several resuscitation attempts.
The victim's companions were taken care of by emergency services. Both were not caught in the flow. A flow 200 meters wide and 600 meters high. “There was a big risk of overavalanche because there were many slopes above“, says a soldier from the Modane high mountain gendarmerie platoon.
According to the first elements of the investigation, the victim herself triggered the avalanche. It would then have been taken by the slide before being buried under a large volume of snow. The woman aged around forty was a Savoyard.of a good level“.
But none of the three members of the group who went skiing in an off-piste area had any equipment. “They did not have a transceiver, a shovel or a probe“, says a soldier from the Modane high mountain gendarmerie platoon.
Examinations must be carried out later to determine more precisely the causes of death.
- -
