A 53 year old British national has been killed by an avalanche while ski touring a little after 15h today near the Dou de Moûtiers above Notre-Dame du Pré. The local mountain rescue helicopter was busy on another operation at the time and the PGHM were dispatched from their base in Chamonix to attend the incident. The victim was ski touring with a French friend who was able to localize the buried skier using his avalanche beacon and begin extraction before the rescue services arrived. The skier was buried under a 1m50 of snow. There was another incident at the pointe des Mines near to Ste Foy Tarentaise, a ski tourer was severely injured by the slide suffering spleen and head injuries.
The avalanche risk was 2 (moderate) in the sector, the bulletin mentioned North to East slopes as requiring particular care. Mountain rescue reminded backcountry travellers that there have been very strong northerly winds at altitude over the previous days and to study the detail of the avalanche bulletin. Re-reading the bulletin there is nothing alarming about the route choice other than the zero isotherm at 2400 meters and the late hour of the descent.