An avalanche occurred this Thursday, December 28 in Haute-Savoie, in the town of Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains. Three people were buried, two of them were found dead by rescuers.
A group of eight skiers, made up of an instructor and his students, were caught in an avalanche “400m long” this Thursday, December 28 in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, indicates the Haute-Savoie prefecture.
The alert was given at 3:40 p.m. in an off-piste area located near the Mont Joly chairlift, in the town’s ski area, at an altitude of 2,300 meters.
Three people were buried by the snow, the ski instructor and two other people.
“A major search and rescue system was immediately deployed by the Saint-Gervais-les-Bains slopes service, reinforced and commanded by the Chamonix high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM)”details the prefecture in a press release.
More than thirty people were mobilized to try to extract the skiers from their white prison: gendarmes from the PGHM of Chamonix, the gendarmerie mountain group, a firefighter from the Haute-Savoie mountain group, six first aid skiers from the area ski area, two dog teams and two emergency doctors from Samu 74.
The teams managed to extract the ski instructor. He is slightly injured.
Despite their best efforts, however, rescuers were unable to save the other two victims, who both died. The other five people were unhurt.
According to the first information communicated by the Haute-Savoie prefecture, the avalanche was triggered by the passage of other skiers, a little higher up the slope.
An investigation has been opened to determine the exact circumstances of this tragedy, “on the instructions of the Public Prosecutor at the Bonneville Judicial Court”.
The prefect of Haute-Savoie, Yves Le Breton, “would like to send its sincere condolences to the relatives of the victims and its thoughts to those involved in this avalanche. It also thanks all the staff who made it possible to carry out the search operations successfully”.