"JP" wrote in message
...
| A British skier has been killed in the French Alps after being swept
away by
| an avalanche.
|
| Jonathan Smout, 34, was skiing off-piste at the popular winter resort
of Val
| D'Isere when the accident happened.
|
| Mr Smout, who was staying at the resort of Tignes, was skiing with
seven
| others, including the instructor, when tragedy struck.
|
| It is unknown if anyone else was injured in the avalanche.

Off piste of course, skiing around 2,100m. There were a couple of other
avalanche victims around the same time, in La Clusaz and Val d'Isère
(Grand Vallon), as well as a lucky Brit snowboarder off piste in the
Grande Platière sector in Flaine who spent a couple of hours at the
bottom of a crevasse before being found, relatively unscathed.

It had snowed a bit Sunday night (10-20cms), temperatures staying pretty
cold all day yesterday. Up at Les Arcs yesterday I was talking to a
pisteur who was grumbling that they had been sent up at the crack of
dawn to set off a few charges, but found nothing worth shifting. No snow
since Monday morning, same cold temperatures, but this morning the
explosions have started.

Shows you can never be too careful.

Yesterday, pretty good conditions:
http://eausalee.alpesprovence.net/im...s/arcs2912.htm