6 year old child dies in Saas Fee avalanche

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

It is with much sadness that we have learned of the death of a 6 year old child in an avalanche in Saas Fee, Switzerland. The Spanish child was having a ski lesson last Wednesday morning on the piste when the avalanche struck around 11.30. The instructor was partially buried, but the small child was not recovered for around 45 minutes.

Due to poor weather helicopters were unable to carry out a rescue and an ambulance was initially used to take the child to a local hospital, from where it was subsequently transferred to a specialist unit by Air Ambulance. Unfortunately, due to injuries sustained the child was pronounced dead that night.

Initial invcestigations have found that the avalanche was 100m wide, and travelled over 300m before hitting the piste. The accident happened at 2900m above sea level, and the avalanche was not triggered by other mountain users.

An inquiry into the tragedy has already begun.