Missing

6 skiers, that is the number of people currently missing in the French mountains this winter.

6/7th January 

In Tignes a 39 year od British man has been missing since Sunday evening when he went to do "one last run". Around a meter of wind blown snow has fallen since his disappearance. The rescue is centered around where his mobile phone was geolocalized. There are numerous avalanches in the sector. In the Pyrénées-Orientales a "very experienced" local skier has been missing since Saturday after setting out on a ski tour. He was at the summit of Pic Mortiers at 2600 meters when his friend lost sight of him after he tried to recover a ski that had slid on a very steep slope. The missing man has an avalanche beacon.

23rd February

The rescue services have been looking for a missing local skier in Bareges since the 23rd of February. Tracks were found from the col de Barèges to the summit of the pic d'Aygues-Cluses. Then nothing, no sign of descent just a few footprints at the summit.

4th March 

In the Savoie two skiers are missing tonight after having been caught by a slide at Planay in the ski resort of d'Arêches-Beaufort. Yesterday a father and his son were caught by an avalanche in the same sector. The incident occurred around 16h30 under the col de la Bâthie. The 16 year old son was hospitalized as a precaution. A women also suffered a shoulder injury following an avalanche near the lac Tournant above Arêches-Beaufort. The avalanche risk in the sector was 3/5 over the weekend. Despite extensive searches no trace has been found of the missing snow shoer at Samoens nor the two skiers in Planay. The searches are ongoing today involving dozens of rescue workers. Since the start of the season there is a missing British skier in la Plagne and two missing ski tourers in the Pyrenees.

The rescue services have spent 1000s of hours searching for these skiers, often in dangerous conditions, the searches are ongoing today but now their families will have to wait for the spring thaw. A simple tracking app like RATA may have saved a huge amount of time and even lives.

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