A 24-year-old Briton has died after a fall of almost 300 metres down a steep off-piste slope in the French Alps.
French media said the victim, who has not been identified, was among a group of skiers who went off piste in Les Arcs 2000 in Savoie. Le Dauphiné Libéré, the regional newspaper, said that two of the group tried to ski down a particularly steep slope situated above an avalanche dam in the Chavonnes area of the resort.
One lost his footing and careered out of control down the slope, which Ici, the state radio, said was almost 300 metres long. He crashed over a rocky ridge at the bottom before landing in a bank of snow, officials said.
Other skiers raised the alert and two ski patrollers reached the scene of the accident where they found the victim unconscious, having suffered a cardiac arrest.
An air ambulance was sent from Courchevel and reached the victim about half an hour after the initial alert. A doctor and two police rescue workers sought to revive the man but failed, and he was declared dead.
The second skier was trapped at the top of the slope, unable to move. He was rescued by a police helicopter. His nationality has not been disclosed.
Le Dauphiné Libéré said the slope that proved fatal was wide at the top but narrowed towards the bottom before ending on the ridge, which was covered in a small quantity of hard snow, increasing the risk of accidents.
The resort addressed “its most sincere thoughts to the family and the friends of the victim”.
Resort managers have urged skiers to avoid steep off-piste slopes when the snow is hard. In total 29 skiers died in accidents in France in the 2023-2024 season, the last period for which full figures were available. This does not include deaths in avalanches.
The death toll was 21 the previous season, according to the National System of Observation of Security in the Mountains. In 2023-2024, 51,591 people were injured.