Mont Blanc death: British woman dies in avalanche in French Alps

A British woman has died in an avalanche while trekking in the French Alps, local authorities said.

She was brought off Mont Blanc’s Argentiere Glacier by mountain rescuers with a helicopter but they were unable to save her life. Colonel Bertrand Host, of the mountain rescue gendarmerie in Chamonix, said his team was called to the glacier at about 5pm local time on Saturday.

He told the PA news agency: “When we arrived we had to rescue this person but she was in a bad situation and we evacuated her from the valley. She was taken charge by rescuers and two dogs but we didn’t manage to reanimate her.” The coroner of Chamonix has opened an inquiry into the death of the woman, who is reported to be 45.

Colonel Host said deaths on the Mont Blanc massif were not rare, with about 80 people losing their lives each year. A spokesperson from the Foreign Office said: “We are providing assistance to the family of a British woman who died in France.”

The Alps attract thousands of skiers during the winter months but some resorts have been left without snow this year because of unseasonably high temperatures across Europe in January. Melting snow is believed to help cause avalanches and climate change is shrinking glaciers at a record rate while destabilising the mountains’ rock because of melting permafrost.

Over the new year parts of Switzerland were reported to have seen a record 20C, with many other European countries setting records in a winter heatwave.

More to follow.