Tuesday 5th January. An avalanche risk of 4, considered the maximum for skiing and 60cm of fresh snow over the previous 48 hours accompanied by strong winds were not enough to discourage Tignes Pro Skier Theo Lange from sking a couloir above the Col du Palet in Tignes.
Theo was working on a contract for a film company at the time of the incident. He told French TV that "he checked the couloir by pushing the tips of his skis into the snow" but on the first turn left the you can see a slab break on a fragile base layer. Theo continued and after a heavy jump over some rocks triggers the whole slope. "I went, my feet were trapped, they took me, my luck was that my boots didn't release, my skis stopped me until the slide passed, I was very scared." In a couple of seconds he is taken down the whole couloir. Fortunately the run out was gentle meaning the skier was not buried in the debris. "Oh f*ck, I thought I was going to die". As he skis out there seem to be existing tracks on the slope. Not a day he'll forget in a hurry. Readers with long memories will remember 5 British doctors and their instructor died in an avalanche in this sector in 1994.
Three other skiers in the Espace Killy were not so lucky. Two were taken to hospital in Grenoble following a slide on the Bellevard and another was killed after being buried on the Santons piste, closed due to the avalanche risk.
http://pistehors.com/one-dead-and-two-seriously-injuried-in-val-disere-avalanches-24200227.htm
