Pyrénées Avalanche Claims Son

A father and son were hit by an avalanche in the ski resort of le Tourmalet close to the Pic du Midi observatory in the Hautes Pyrénées. They had taken an off-piste short cut at the bottom of the Come-l’Ayse piste in the Super Barèges sector.

The avalanche struck at 14h30. The alert was given by the father who was some meters behind and escaped the worst of the slide. The 28 years old snowboarder was not wearing an avalanche beacon and was only found after close to 2 hours of probe search by rescuers. He was buried under 250cm of snow having been carried into a stream. Due to the depth of burial the avalanche dogs brought to the scene was unable to find a scent. Météo-France has recorded 50cm of fresh snow in the mountain range and an alert had been broadcast. The avalanche risk was high.

TF1 / [url=http://www.kairn.com]http://www.kairn.com[/url] / LDM

Posted by davidof on Thursday, 27 January, 2005 at 09:57 PM