Henry Schniewind has emailed to tell us of an avalanche fatality at Val d’Isere today in the Fornet sector. Details are still a bit sketchy but the incident occured in the notorious Gorge de Malpasset (the name speaks for itself - bad passage). Henry says the route is impassable at the moment (many a skier has been blocked descending this route, always check with the piste patrol if it is practicable). A husband and wife were skiing the gorge when they were hit by a relatively small slide. This took the man into the water. The wife is ok but was slightly hypothermic.

There has been a lot of snow over the last few days. Yesterday and today it was fairly humid and accompanied by strong winds. As far as we know the avalanche risk was Considerable (3/5) but we will check this with Meteo France later.

A quick update. The victim and his wife were in their thirties and residents of Paris. The slide was 5 meters wide and 30cm deep, a stark reminder that even a very small slab can be fatal if you are in an exposed situation or there is a terrain trap below. The police had to use diving gear to search the freezing waters where they found the man half-submerged.

If you are in Val d’Isere get along to one of Henry’s talks where he will discuss these kind dangers: http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com/

There was an avalanche in la Grave today which caught three climbers around midday. The avalanche was in the Fréaux sector. The climbers, aged in their 40s, were in the cascade known as aléa jacta est (the die is cast) at 1580m in the Combe de Malaval. Two of the climbers were taken by helicopter to Briançon with minor injuries.

http://www.camptocamp.org/outings/198305/fr/la-grave-malaval-versant-s-alea-jacta-est

Sounds like a purge, perhaps slopes high up funnelled onto the route?