A 55 year old man has died in an avalanche at the ski resort of Saint-François-Longchamp. Resident of Havre, he was skiing off piste at the rear of a group of 6 skiers near the closed Reverdy piste above the Col de la Madeleine (1993 meters) when he was taken around 50 meters by a small avalanche. This caused a secondary slide entirely burying the skier. Despite a very rapid intervention by the rescue services the man was found by rescue dogs after 45 minutes buried under 150cm of snow. He was not wearing an avalanche beacon. The incident occured around 13h15 on a south sector slope. Conditons and the snow pack were "springlike".
The avalanche risk was 3/5 (Considerable) following over half a meter of fresh snow in the sector since Monday. The avalanche bulletin warned of the risk of a single skier triggering a slide, especially above 1800-2000 meters.