Skiers in France warned with utmost caution, avalanche claims two more lives

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

After an avalanche in the Alps resulted in two deaths and three other went missing, the tourists skiing and snowboarding in France have been warned to exercise extreme caution.

Since November 2017 the avalanche on Sunday 4 March raised the death toll in the French mountains to 25.

Around lunch time while skiing off-piste near Vallorcine in the Chamonix Mont Blanc region two skiers one French and one Belgian died.

A Swiss hiker was swept away in the resorts of Samoens and his body is still not found as per the authorities.

An Haute-Savoie regional official said that they were pessimistic about his chances as he has been five hours under the snow.

Minister of the Interior of France, Gerard Collomb, has warned those doing snow sports to be careful.

He wrote on a micro blogging site that many avalanches have grieved the mountains, he requested those practicing  winter sports to take utmost caution.In order not to endanger themselves or the rescue teams following the instruction of the authorities was essential.

On 2 March in the Mercantour National Park in the French went through the season’s deadliest avalanche that killed four skiers. However, an investigation has been opened into possible manslaughter and unintentional harm.

It is observed that Avalanches usually take place off piste, which is not within the piste markers in the European resorts and these are not avalanche-protected or patrolled.

The high-risk zones are the steep slopes those between a 30 and 40-degree gradient as they are places on the windward side of the hill where snow blows from one side of the mountain to another.

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