The search continues on Monday to find the two people still missing after this massive snowslide.
An already dramatic assessment, which could increase in the hours to come. Late Sunday morning, a dozen people were swept away by an avalanche that occurred in the Mont-Blanc massif, on the heights of Contamines-Montjoie, in Haute-Savoie.
The impressive snowfall, which occurred at 11:27 a.m. on the Armancette glacier, surprised skiers and killed at least four people. One of the deadliest reports in France in recent years, while two people are still missing.
• Who are the victims?
Among the victims are two guides from the company of guides of Saint-Gervais, in Haute-Savoie, announced in a press release the National Union of Mountain Guides, expressing its “emotion”. One was born in 1974, the other in 1984, said the Bonneville prosecution.
“He’s a little guide that we all know, he’s a local child, a love of a young guide. At that time, we don’t know anything at all, it’s after that we learn that there are victims, wounded, that we see helicopters spinning, that the ax falls, and that we learn that we have lost friends”, explains, to BFMTV, Élisabeth Mollard, deputy mayor of Contamines- Montjoie, in Haute-Savoie.
For the time being, it is not possible to determine whether the athletes surprised by the avalanche were part of the same rope or separate ropes, the prefecture had indicated earlier.
The investigation to find the causes of the death and worrying disappearance, opened by the Bonneville prosecutor’s office, should make it possible to specify the chronology of the facts.
• Optimal conditions
The Armancette glacier was “relatively popular at that time with experienced hikers, who climbed on foot to its summit, at 3600 m, before descending it on ski touring, at 1100 m, to the village of Les Contamines. In summer , it is a hiking area in the high mountains”, explains the mayor of Contamines-Montjoie, François Barbier.
However, no avalanche alert had been issued by Météo-France, also noted the prefecture. But the heat and the wind could have caused the detachment of a patch of snow.
“It was a great day to go high in the mountains without significant risks. Honestly, the conditions were very good for skiing, it’s one of the best days of winter. Unfortunately, it ends dramatically”, explains , to BFMTV, Jean-Luc Mattel, also deputy mayor of Contamines-Montjoie, in Haute-Savoie.
On its Twitter account, the Contamines-Montjoie ski area posted a video showing this “big flow” hurtling down the snowy slope and calling for “caution off-piste”. But as the station specifies, this avalanche did not take place on the ski area.
• Relief operations continue
The search quickly mobilized around twenty gendarmes from the PGHM of Chamonix, firefighters, doctors from the SMUR, then joined by other emergency services. Two Civil Security and Gendarmerie helicopters and dogs dedicated to avalanche research were also mobilized.
According to the prefecture, the search was to be suspended in the evening, to resume this Monday morning at 7 a.m. in the sector where an avalanche phenomenon cannot be ruled out.
• Precedents on the same glacier
On this same glacier, two brothers, experienced mountaineers in their twenties, were carried away on December 25, 2014.
According to the mayor, a larger avalanche had occurred in the same place in December 2021, “descending to the village”, but had no casualties. That of Sunday is one of the most serious occurred for twenty years in France.
On Twitter, President Emmanuel Macron sent his “thoughts” to the “victims” of this avalanche on Sunday. “To find people still stuck in the snow, our rescue forces are mobilized. Our thoughts are with them, too,” added the head of state on Twitter.
