Two French ski guides were killed Friday in an explosion as they prepared to detonate dynamite to clear a potential avalanche from a slope in the French Alps, police said. The pair, a man and a woman, aged 39 and 33, were working at the La Toussuire station in Savoie to clear dangerous snow drifts before ski runs opened for the day. An inquiry has been launched to discover the cause of the blast. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Explosion+kills+guides/2620588/story.html
All the other information I’ve thus found has been in French:
The first Dauphine article states that a new system of explosive fuse called “Nonel” was being used, and that this is supposed to be safer than traditional slow burn fuses or electric fuses. Several other resorts in Savoie had called off manual charge releases Friday morning and were keeping pistes closed instead.
There are no firm details of the circumstances of the explosion, poor weather conditons quickly covered any evidence and forensic specialists were not able to access the scene due the danger of the situation. The pistes in this area of the resort remain closed whilst investigations continue.