(Lyon) The toll of the avalanche that occurred on Sunday on a glacier in the French Alps (east), in the Mont-Blanc massif, increased on Monday with a total of six dead, including two guides, the authorities announced on Monday. French.
“We have just found the sixth victim,” regional prosecutor Karline Bouisset told AFP. It is “probably” the companion of the 39-year-old woman found dead late Sunday afternoon, a man born in 1981, added the magistrate. The couple was from the Lyon suburbs, according to the same source.
This assessment makes the avalanche one of the deadliest in recent years in France.
The impressive snowfall occurred Sunday morning on the Armancette glacier, on the heights of Contamines-Montjoie and surprised skiers. It had a “drop of 1600 m” and “a width of 500 m”, according to the prefecture of Haute-Savoie.
The conditions were “good” this Easter Sunday, explained to AFP the mayor of Contamines-Montjoie, François Barbier. No avalanche warning had been issued by Météo-France.
The avalanche surprised “three groups of skiers”, each “supervised by one or two mountain guides”, indicated the prosecution.
Among the deceased are two guides from the company of guides of St-Gervais (Haute-Savoie), born in 1974 and 1984, announced in a press release the National Union of Mountain Guides.
The identities of the other victims have not been released.
On this same glacier, two brothers, experienced mountaineers in their twenties, were carried away on December 25, 2014.
According to the mayor, a larger avalanche had occurred in the same place in December 2021, “descending to the village”, but had no casualties.
