A British skier who died after a “violent collision” with another tourist in the French Alps is just the latest victim to lose his life on the deadly black slope.
The unnamed British woman, 62, reportedly crashed head-on into a 35-year-old Briton on the Aiguille Rouge piste after losing control of her skis.
Emergency services were called to the mountainside and paramedics attempted to resuscitate her, but tragically she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The man he collided with was standing at the time after stopping in a “pothole” under the main runway, according to Philippe Janin, director of slope safety in the Les Arcs area. Janin said the runway was “well maintained” at the time of the collision.
The skier who crashed suffered a broken leg and was taken to a local medical center.
Alpine police have launched an investigation to determine the circumstances of the accident, according to local prosecutor Benoît Bachelet.
The woman is the fifth person since 2008 to lose her life skiing or snowboarding on the famous slope, which industry experts described as “tough” and “strictly for strong skiers” or off-piste, where avalanches regularly occur after large accumulations of snow.
Aiguille Rouge, named after the 3,227m mountain from which it descends, is one of the longest runs in the world and takes even competent skiers up to 40 minutes to complete.
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A view from the top of the black run shows the steep descent down the 2,026 m vertical drop.
The cabin of the cable car that goes to the top of the Aiguille Rouge
It has one of the largest gradients of any piste (a staggering 2,026m) and is made up of several difficult sections that wind through the Vanoise National Park.
The latest tragedy comes after a 13-year-old boy lost his life on Christmas Day while skiing with his family on the mountain.
The group had ventured off the slope when an avalanche, believed to have been caused by a snowboarder up high, buried the boy.
Around 3:00 p.m. local time, a ski patroller detected the avalanche and alerted rescuers, including a doctor, members of the gendarmerie and two dog handlers, who responded to the incident.
Desperate attempts to locate the boy before he suffocated were unsuccessful and he was found unconscious 20 minutes after the search began.
He could not be revived and was pronounced dead at the scene around 5:08 p.m., according to Midi Libre.
Aiguille Rouge, named after the 3,227m mountain from the top of which it descends, is one of the longest pistes in the world.
His six family members avoided being submerged and emerged unharmed.
That day, the avalanche risk at the summit was level three out of five, indicating “considerable” danger.
The skier who lost her life on Tuesday is the second British woman to die in a collision on the Aiguille Rouge.
In 2009, a 38-year-old skier from London allegedly spun and fell headlong down the slope, quickly gaining speed as she plummeted downward.
She crashed into a snowdrift and was partially buried, preventing her from freeing herself when she went into cardiac arrest, according to reports at the time citing rescuers.
Another fatal fall occurred in a nearby off-piste area in 2014.
A snowboarder reportedly fell from a rock outcrop at the same time an avalanche apparently triggered.
Search and rescue teams were unable to revive him at the scene.
In 2008, a Parisian who was skiing off-piste on the piste died after being hit by an avalanche.
For every ten million skiers, an average of ten traumatic deaths are recorded each year on French slopes, of which between three and five are due to a collision with an obstacle or between skiers, according to Domaines skiables de France (DSF). .