A couple of nordic skiers have been killed by an avalanche on the road from Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans to la Berarde. The couple had left on Monday afternoon from their second home.
The alert was given on Monday afternoon. The rescue services flew a reconnaissance mission along the road and spotted an avalanche about 1km from the hamlet of Champhorent at around 1550 meters altitude. The couple had a second home in the hamlet. The victims were buried under 150cm of snow. The road is closed to road traffic in the winter. The avalanche risk was 3/5 below 1800 meters, 4/5 above. The slopes above the road are very steep and south to south-east facing. The rescue services described them as being "charged with snow". The avalanche bulletin had warned of natural snow slides on sunny south facing slopes. It appears that one of these slides had buried the couple.