The body of a skier was recovered from the slopes of Mont Tabor (2389 meters), near Grenoble, this morning. He had left on his own for a ski tour on Saturday. His family gave the alert on Sunday when he failed to contact them. His car was found late on Sunday and a full search began early this morning. An avalanche was spotted in the Couloir de Chamoissière and the man's body was found under 30cm of snow using the signal from his avalanche beacon. The man had been carried 400 meters down slope by the slide. The couloir is a steep, east facing slope of around 45° and is accessed directly from the summit.
The avalanche risk was 3/5 (Considerable) above 2000 meters altitude and the bulletin had warned of new powder slabs that are sensitive to a single skier formed by the West-North-West then North wind at altitude near and below ridges and the risk of skier triggered wet snow sides on steep, sunny slopes.
Another ski tourer was completely buried by a slide except his arm in the same sector above the Lac Charlet. The avalanche occured at 2030 meters altitude on a West facing slope on a roll over just under a ridge. The skier was rescued by eye witnesses. There was a second natural avalanche at the same time in a couloir above the lake at 2200 meters altitude.
A large search and rescue operation was put in in by the fire service near the ski resort of Isola 2000 on Sunday morning to find two missing skiers in the Vallon de Lanchers. The first victim was found near the access road to the resort suffering from multiple injuries. Around noon a second victim was recovered from the avalanche debris in a serious condition and heliported to hospital in Nice.