Paris.- Three skiers who were off-piste this Saturday in the Alps died today in two separate avalanches, due to the heavy snowfall in northeastern France, which also complicated traffic on the roads.
Two men died in the large Savoyard resort of Val-d’Isère (Savoy region), after being swept away by an avalanche while skiing off-piste and were located thanks to their mobile phones buried under 2.5 meters of snow, but it was too late to revive them, according to the tourist office.
The third skier, also a man, died about 60 kilometers away, in the resort of Arêches-Beaufort, also in Savoy, and the woman accompanying him was rescued and hospitalized in serious condition.
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Météo-France warned the day before that the snow in the Alps would be characterized this weekend by widespread instability with a high risk of avalanches in almost all mountain ranges, so it issued a risk level of 4 out of 5, and had recommended extreme caution.
Further north, the four departments of Franche-Comté (Jura, Doubs, Territoire de Belfort and Haute-Saône), the Vosges and Haute-Marne are under orange alert for snow and ice until midnight on Saturday, due to the passage of storm Goretti.
This storm, which the day before caused significant damage in the northwest of France due to strong winds, complicated the situation today on the roads in the northeast, which was improving in the late afternoon.
Snowfall is expected to gradually decrease overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
However, Météo-France warned that temperatures will be significantly negative in the second half of the night, with a risk of a phenomenon known as black ice forming, a nearly imperceptible layer of ice that forms on the pavement and poses a significant risk to both drivers and pedestrians.
