A 24 year old solo ski tourer has been killed by an avalanche in the Brévent range near the aiguillette des Houches. The alarm was given when he failed to turn up for a meeting in the early afternoon. A reconnaissance flight by the PGHM located the victim.
There were a number of avalanches in the Aravis, in particular a skier was taken by a slide in the Grande-Forclaz bowl at 1900 meters altitude. The victim was rescued by his companions but suffered head injuries from an avalanche shovel while being dug out. He was taken to hospital by helicopter. In the Combe à Marion a ski tourer was taken 100 meters by an avalanche close to the summit and there was another skier triggered slide in the combe de la Creuse.
Two skiers were caught by an avalanche in the Lion Couloir at Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval at 1700 meters altitude with one injured who had to be evacuated by helicopter.
Slides were also reported in the Beaufortin, Bauges and Belledonne. The principal cause was the strong easterly winds that had started on Friday evening with a lot of blown snow.
There was no avalanche bulletin for the department of the Haute-Savoie due to a strike at Meteo France but both the prefecture and Meteo France had issued a general snow and avalanche warning for the weekend. On Sunday the risk is High in most of the frontier ranges due to significant snowfall and strong easterly winds (slabs on lee slopes) and Considerable over much of the rest of the Alps (windslab).