A guided ski touring group has been caught by an avalanche near to the ski resort of Serre Chevalier in the Hautes-Alpes. One of the group, a 58 year old woman, resident of Lyon was killed by the slide, another taken to hospital with serious injuries. The group had started from the Pont de l'Alpe and were in the Col du Chardonnet sector on a west facing slope at around 2300 meters when the incident occurred. The alert was given at 14h30. The avalanche was a hard slab formed by the wind over the preceding days resting on a weak layer; there had been very little fresh snow in the sector.
The avalanche risk was 2 above 2200 meters, 1 below. The avalanche bulletin warned of a persistent weak layer with rare hard slabs above 2200 meters altitude on cold, north sector slopes close to cols and ridges. These slabs were signaled as being possible to trigger by a single skier.