Avalanche claims another life

File image

A 22-year-old skier has died in an avalanche in Verbier.

Police say the Swiss-Dutch national was skiing off-piste shortly before noon yesterday in a gully below Les Attelas at around 2,600 metres, when he was swept away. 

Rescue teams reached the scene by helicopter, but he was pronounced dead at the site.

The Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research warns that fresh and wind-drifted snow are lying on a weak older layer, making avalanches easy to trigger and potentially large. 

Prosecutors have opened an investigation.
 

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