There has been another serious avalanche at Tignes around 13h00. A group of 8 British and French skiers were off piste itineary of the Vallon de la Sache under the Aiguille Percée when two of the group triggered the slide. One of the victims was quickly recovered by a piste patroller who spotted his hat in the debris but the other victim, a forty year old British man, spent over 30 minutes under the snow. Found in a state of cardio-vascular arrest first aid was administered at the scene before the victim was taken by helicopter to Grenoble in a serious but not critical condition.

The slide measured 70 meters by 300 meters. Neither of the victims had avalanche transceivers. The avalanche risk was 4. Conditions were excellent with good visibility but extremely cold.

Isn’t the Sache a piste nowadays? There’s some variants skiers right from the top IIRC. Le Dauphine have a little http://www.ledauphine.com/savoie/2012/12/12/tignes-une-nouvelle-avalanche-emporte-deux-skieurs

ise there is a black piste called ‘Sache’, but the Vallons de la Sache is quite a large off piste area beyond this with many entries & variants…

I’ve skied there many times.  What was the itinerary is now the black isn’t it?

Le Dauphine just says off piste. Serious ground to stray into at HIGH risk.

You go over a ridge to get into the valley

http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Savoie/Tignes-Off-Piste#Sache

it is not somewhere you get to by accident. They do some limited avalanche control on the route in season simply because it is so popular with skiers but it shouldn’t be considered safe like US inbounds.

Or you can go down the start of the Sache piste and turn left (3 Murs variants) - takes you into the same middle & lower sections of the classic Vallons…
Its a great area, but lots of different aspects - everything from N through S via E - and lots of roll-offs / breaks in terrain.

Ah that sounds more likely for a group without equipment and it is probably there where they do some avalanche control, don’t you think? I’ll see if Alain Duclos knows the grid for the slide.

Have a good season start.

Another injury through avalanche. Another group off-piste on a high risk day without transceivers! I was in Tignes last week and helped in the search for the instructor group. There was a lot of talk about the Tignes authorities being angry at what happened then. But they don’t seem to be doing anything about advising on carrying transceivers. It’s still shocking that at this time of year people are skiing these areas without equipment.

Yet another group of skiers on offpiste terrain without safety equipment - is it any wonder this happened

davidof looking at pictures it looks like the classic entry to the Vallons - ie hike 20m uphill from the top of the Aig Percee chair then trav left on to the N facing slopes..