A British woman has died in an avalanche while skiing with friends in Argentina.
The woman, in her twenties, was skiing with two friends in the Andes mountains near the Patagonian city of Bariloche when she became buried under snow and rocks.
Her body was found at around 11 p.m. local time on Wednesday after a search and rescue operation that lasted several hours and continued into Thursday morning.
She was identified in Argentina as the victim of Wednesday’s tragedy after initial erroneous reports identified her as an Irish citizen.
An FCDO spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who died in Argentina and are in contact with local authorities.”
The two survivors were identified locally as Augusto Gruttadauria, from the city of Córdoba, almost 1,600 kilometers northeast of Bariloche, and local Christian Erauskin.
Rescue teams were seen working after the avalanche on Monte Lopez, which claimed the life of a British tourist, while two other people were rescued on Cerro Lopez near Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina, on September 5.
A British woman was found dead after being swept away by an avalanche in the Andes of southern Argentina
The Rescue Commission of the Bariloche Alpine Club said that the main hypothesis is that the skiers themselves caused the avalanche.
A full search was launched, using dogs and avalanche search devices.
Both are said to have been suffering from hypothermia when they were found and lowered to safety from the iconic 7,178ft Cerro Lopez mountain following the avalanche shortly after 5pm local time on Wednesday.
Augusto was the last of three people rescuers reached early Thursday morning after being buried under snow for 15 hours.
He had managed to climb up with difficulty, pull his arm out of the snow and make an emergency call.
The avalanche risk when she and her colleagues set out on Wednesday was “considerable.”
Wednesday’s incident was reported as a D3 in the American Avalanche Association’s classification, meaning it was powerful enough to “bury and destroy a car, damage a truck or destroy a wooden house.”
The Rescue Commission of the Bariloche Alpine Club said that the main hypothesis is that the skiers themselves caused the avalanche.
The British Embassy in Buenos Aires informed the Buenos Aires Herald‘We are supporting the family of a British citizen who died in Argentina and are in contact with local authorities.’
An investigation into the tragedy has been launched.
