Looks like a group were caught just above Le Tour after doing the Col de Passon. http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2012/04/03/chamonix-deces-d-un-randonneur-sur-le-glacier-du-tour This brings the number of fatalities to three in recent weeks with the avalanche on the Posettes and the fall on the Crochues.

A lot going down in that area at the moment. A couple of falls I think? Vallorcine and the Aiguilles Rouges?

I watched the drama unfold the other day.

The PGHM were already in the area as they’d been doing avalanche rescue training that morning not far away. The first slide came down at about 1440 and the Gendarmes (who were packing up to go home) threw on the skins to run back up to search for ARVA beeps. Slides kept coming down on their heads so they had to keep retreating. The victim came down over some cliffs in a quite big slide and was buried. Helicopters brought in the dogs and rescued the skier still perched on the rock band.

All a bit grim considering it was all in view of the beginner ski areas and the café.

Yes quite scary to see all that, here is the report from Radio Mont Blanc

http://www.radiomontblanc.fr/actualite/actualite-regionale-2/4-avril-chamonix-le-tour-2908.html

Yesterday at 16h30 in the Glacier du Tour sector, two skiers triggered a snow slide. The avalanche hit one of the men and took him on a steep descent of some hundreds of meters. The 37 year old German skier was carried over a number of cliff bands and seems to have died directly from his injuries. He was very quickly dug out of the snow by PGHM rescue workers who were doing an exercise in the area.

The avalanche risk was 1 rising to 2/5 in the afternoon with the principal danger on W-N-E sector slopes (don’t know the slope aspect where the slide occured). Start at 1700m. The bulletin described the risk of skier triggered avalanches as “low, with some rare windslab”.

I dont know the detail of what happened here, but quite a few years ago I got caught out at the bottom of this route. We had been slow at the top due to poor visibility and it was late afternoon on a warm day when we got to the lower slopes, there were shallow wet snow slides going off all around us, I have never been so scared, seeing the ground move made me feel sick.

Skiers left there are a few small cliffs and steep gullies that even a modest slide could push you over.

A sad series of accidents.

gwilym, you wrote that you saw the avalanche. But you write the first slide came down at 1440, but the accident really happened 16.30? I’m wondering about the late time in spring conditions…