A British skier who died after a ‘violent collision’ with another tourist in the French Alps is just the latest victim to have lost their life on the deadly black run.
The unnamed British woman, 62, is reported to have crashed head-on into a 35-year-old British man on the Aiguille Rouge slope after losing control of her skis.
Emergency services rushed to the mountainside and paramedics tried to resuscitate her, but tragically she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The man she collided with had been stationary at the time after he had stopped on a ‘bump’ below the main track, according to Philippe Janin, director of slope safety in the Les Arcs area. Janin said the piste had been ‘well-groomed’ at the time of the collision.
The skier who was crashed into suffered from a broken leg and was transported to a local medical centre.
An investigation to determine the circumstances of the accident has been launched by alpine police, according to local prosecutor Benoît Bachelet.
The woman is the fifth person since 2008 to have lost their life skiing or snowboarding on the notorious slope – which industry experts described as ‘tough’ and ‘strictly for strong skiers’ or off the piste, where avalanches regularly hit after large snow dumps.
Aiguille Rouge – named after the 3,227m mountain it descends from the top of – is one of the longest runs in the world and takes even competent skiers up to 40 minutes to complete.
A view from the top of the black run shows the steep descent down the 2,026m vertical drop
The cabin of cable car that goes to the top of Aiguille Rouge
It has one of the biggest vertical drops of any piste – a staggering 2,026m – and is made up of several difficult sections which wind through the Vanoise National Park.
The latest tragedy comes after a 13-year-old boy lost his life on Christmas day while skiing with family on the mountain.
The group had ventured off-piste when an avalanche, thought to have been triggered by a snowboarder above, buried the child.
At around 3.00 pm local time, a ski patroller spotted the avalanche and alerted rescuers, including a doctor, members of the gendarmerie, and two dog handlers, who responded to the incident.
Desperate attempts to locate the boy before he suffocated were unsuccessful, and he was found unconscious 20 minutes after the search began.
He could not be resuscitated, and was pronounced dead at the scene at around 5.08 pm, according to Midi Libre.
Aiguille Rouge – named after the 3,227m mountain it descends from the top of – is one of the longest runs in the world
His six family members avoided becoming submerged and escaped unharmed.
The avalanche risk on the peak that day was level three out of five, indicating ‘considerable’ danger.
The skier who lost her life on Tuesday is the second British woman to have died in a collision on Aiguille Rouge.
In 2009, a 38-year-old skier from London reportedly blew a turn and fell head first down the slope, rapidly picking up speed as she hurtled down.
She slammed into a snow drift and was partially buried, preventing her from freeing herself as she went into cardiac arrest, according to reports at the time which cited rescue workers.
Another fatal fall occurred in an off-piste area nearby in 2014.
A snowboarder reportedly fell from a rocky outcrop at the same time as an avalanche had apparently been triggered.
Search and rescue teams were unable to revive him at the scene.
In 2008, a Parisian man who was skiing off-piste above the run perished after an avalanche hit.
Out of some 10 million skiers, an average of 10 traumatic deaths are recorded each year on the slopes of France, including three to five due to a collision with an obstacle or between skiers, according to Domaines skiables de France (DSF).
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
