Skiers warned as 10 die on slopes

SKIERS have been warned about the dangers of skiing off-piste after a series of accidents in the Alps that have seen 10 people killed – including eight in avalanches.

Two off-piste skiers died in the Queyras Massif on Saturday and a gendarme ski instructor was killed during a training exercise when he fell into a crevasse on Mont Blanc.

The deaths followed a week that saw four people killed by an avalanche at Crevoux in Hautes-Alpes and two at Tignes.

In Saturday’s accident a party of three skiers, a couple in their 50s and a 75-year-old friend, were swept away after a 30cm slab of snow broke off as they passed. All three were carried

600m downhill and buried under the snow. They had been wearing avalanche beacons and were quickly found – but the older man and the woman could not be revived.

The Hautes-Alpes prefecture has warned skiers to take care when skiing off-piste and on Saturday the avalanche risk in Pelvoux and Champsaur was said to be four on a scale of five, while on

other massifs in the Alpes de Sud the risk is still standing today at 3/5.

Last Tuesday four Breton skiers were killed in an avalanche at Crévoux (Hautes-Alpes). Only their guide managed to escape. On Wednesday two skiers, a guide and a client, were swept 300m to

their deaths in an avalanche at Tignes, Savoie.

On Thursday a cross-country skier died when he crashed into a tree.