A missing Parisian ski mountaineer has been found dead under an avalanche in the Bauges this afternoon. The man’s car had been spotted in a car-park above the village of Ecole. Police had started searching the Bellevaux valley, a popular destination for ski tourers, on Saturday morning. It appears the man had set out for a ski tour on Thursday. The Bellevaux saw a major avalanche last spring which killed three members of the French Alpine Club.
Bauges mountains above the Bellevaux Valley
The police were joined in their search by a ski tourer equipped with an avalanche beacon and he picked up a signal under a avalanche debris at 1800 meters altitude. Around 50cm of snow had fallen in the area earlier in the week companied by a strong wind from the north-west which had formed some large accumulation of snow. The risk was given as 4 (high) above 1500 meters in the Bauges range by the Meteo France avalanche bulletin. This bring to seven the number of people killed in avalanches since last Thursday in the French Alps. Two of them ski mountaineers and five off-piste skiers including a 49 year old British national.