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Avalanche in Val Thorens 29/4/2014
There was an avalanche today on the Aiguille de Péclet, near the Glacier de Chaviere and the Col de Gebroulaz. It carried away four touring skiers, who were not buried, but who suffered injuries, with serious injuries to one of them. The High Mountain Gendarmerie based in Modane rescued them, and took them to hospital in St Jean de Maurienne.
29th April 2014
There was an avalanche on the Glacier de Chaviere, close to the Col de Gebroulaz, today. The Dauphine Libere reports that it was about 1pm, but ValThorensGuide believes it happened a little earlier, around midday.
It snowed yesterday, Monday 28th April, and during the night, and by this morning, Tuesday 29th April 2014, there were 15cm of fresh snow at resort level, and 20cm at 3000m. The avalanche risk was 3 out of 5. At the top of the ski area, the snow was wind-blown this morning.
France 3 has more details of the accident. It says that there were six skiers in the group. They had gone up the glacier on touring skis, and were then walking up a couloir to the summit of the Aiguille de Péclet (3561m). At the top of the couloir, a windslab avalanche was set off, and it carried four of the group down about 150m. None of them was buried, but they all suffered injuries, and were taken to hospital in St Jean de Maurienne. One of the four, a man in his forties, suffered serious injuries.
There are some technical details on data-avalanche.org,
with photos of the avalanche scene, and a diagram showing the depth and
length of the slide. It shows that the slope was south-facing. The
report says that two of the party were seriously injured, with a broken
femur and a broken leg, and two were slightly injured.