...skier killed ... while skiing off piste on the Grande Motte glacier at Tignes this afternoon... He had crossed ropes and a ski piste reserved for competition
May his soul rest - but why do people do this?
I recall, about a decade ago, riding the chair back up the Black run on the Grande Motte and watching aghast as a skier below waved up at his mates... while he stood on a snow-bridge over a crevasse about 100m the wrong side of the danger markers and ropes at the piste edge.
We skiied back down (on the piste!), with the intention of yelling at him, but saw no sign of him so continued on. As the chair back up took us over the crevasse again we saw, literally, a skier-shaped hole, as if made by a cookie-cutter, in the snow-bridge! A piste-basher was already on the scene and we watched a pisteur descend into the crevasse on a rope (attached to said piste-basher). On this occasion the guy was lucky... but what a complete idiot?
Glaciers may make for reliable skiing but they are not good places to venture off-piste.