Valfréjus: Avalanche shakes

Valfréjus: Avalanche shakes up a group of skiers, two injured

For the first time this season, the Modane mountain rescue station rescued ski tourers caught up in a snow slide on Saturday. "This group of four people, from the Lyon region, were operating on the ski area of the resort of Valfréjus (near Modane, NDLR), but this one is still closed," say the CRS, who provided the rescue aboard the Gendarmerie.

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The avalanche started in the area of the Col Trail, above the Arrondaz plateau. Of the four people, three in their sixties and a thirty-year-old, on board, one was buried. Her companions were able to free her before paramedics arrived, but she was in hypothermia with an ankle injury. Another hiker was shot in the knee. The two injured were taken to the hospital in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, the other two dropped off at the base of the mountain rescue.

"The case could have ended much worse, because of the bad weather, we almost had to operate in a ground caravan," said one rescuer. The response time would then have been much longer. Moreover, the risk is described as enormous by these mountain professionals: "snow and avalanche reports are not yet available, and the areas are not secure, whereas due to a phenomenon of return from the East, the accumulation of snow border areas by tomorrow [this Sunday] is 1.50 metres to 2 metres." With the instability of the mantle that goes with it.

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