The 34-year-old died of serious injuries, police said in Crans Montana on Wednesday.
In the disaster on Tuesday, three more people were injured easier. Whether it was foreign tourists or locals, the police could not say at first.
The Frenchman helped at the time of the avalanche departure of a previously injured on the slopes person. The two and another helper and a fourth person were caught by the snow. Everyone was quickly found, police said. Rescuers continued to search for possible victims in the snow masses overnight. Since there were no more missing persons, the search was stopped on Wednesday.
The prosecution had opened an investigation a few hours after the accident. She checks whether snow athletes off the secured pistes triggered the avalanche or whether they spontaneously went off. The weather was good at the time of the accident, the avalanche danger was judged to be low.
Snow scientist Robert Bolognesi does not believe the risk has been underestimated. „This avalanche broke above the usual level of sliding snow avalanches,“ he told the news agency Keystone-SDA. The Ski World Cup race of Crans Montana should take place as planned on the weekend.
The avalanche had spilled the ski slope over a length of 400 meters. It is rare for avalanches to fall onto groomed, well-protected pistes.
According to the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF), in the past ten years a skier on a runway has been killed by an avalanche throughout Switzerland. In open terrain, where touring skiers are off the slopes, more than 220 people were killed by avalanches in ten years, as aviation expert Kurt Winkler told the station SRF.
