In disheartening news out of Chamonix, France, Kiwi mountain guide Russell Braddock, a 60-year-old ski mountaineer who worked for the Wanaka, NZ-based company Adventure Consultants, perished after a slide buried him while he was skiing a route on the north face of Mont Blanc du Tacul, a mountain between the Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc.
Tragically, its sounds as though the slide could have been avoided. A French police unit on the mountain during a training exercise–apparently part of the military as reported by the French media–triggered the avalanche above the experienced guide who was freeskiing on his day off. An investigation is ongoing.
All photos from Facebook.
“We’re devastated to hear of the accident and the loss of Russell,” said Adventure Consultants CEO Guy Cotter. “Russell was going on the standard route, and they’d climbed another route and were descending directly above him. There’s every likelihood that if the climbers hadn’t descended it wouldn’t have released. They walked right into a trigger point on the slope at its weakest point, releasing a big slab and Russell was in the path. He was probably unaware that those climbers were above him, and they were probably unaware he was below them.”
The 600-meter avalanche overtook Braddock, who was known for his cautious approach and absolute love of the mountains, sometime Monday. Mont Blanc du Tacul is a popular route during the high season in the Alps, when the snow has receded. There are often 50 climbers at a time on its north face. The region had experienced weather in recent weeks, according to Braddock’s Facebook page, and avalanche activity has killed climbers in the area before.
