Another avalanche at le Tour in the Chamonix Valley
After a light snowfall on Monday afternoon which was swiftly followed by pretty much constant rain up to around 2000m for much of Monday night and into Tuesday, there was yet again a large avalanche in Le Tour.
The avalanche happened in the morning as snow gave way from the windlips above the Belle Place red piste which is next to the Tete de Balme chair, on the backside of Le Tour. This was exactly the same place where there was an avalanche on the 21st December, the same day that the young French snowboarder was killed in a separate avalanche in the Jeurs area, not far from tete de Balme.
This time the avalanche was about 40 metres wide and 80 metres long, cutting the Belle Place piste. It seems yesterday's avalanche may have been set off by two snowboarders, but this has not been confirmed. Eye witnesses in the area at the time had seen two people above where the slide happened, so a full search was launched.
Around 65 personnel including PGHM rescuers, Le Tour pisteurs and ESF ski instructors were mobilised to work in lines to probe the area to check for possible victims buried under the snow. Two helicopters were also scrambled to search from the air. In the end, it was a happy ending as there was no-one injured or killed in this latest avalanche.
With the warming up of temperatures all over the Alpes leading to heavy rain up to around 2500m, the avalanche risk is markedly high at 4 out of 5, so going off piste is a very ill advised move at the moment...
Source : Radio Mont Blanc
