Body of British Snowboarder Missing in Tignes Since January is Recovered as Snow Begins to Melt

John was on a week’s snowboarding holiday with his British friends when he disappeared in poor weather. He was last seen in deteriorating weather conditions at 4.30pm on 7th January on the Paquis chairlift in the Lavachet area.

He was reported missing at 11 pm that when he failed to return to his accommodation.

The local police put out a major alert at the time, but terrible conditions prevented efforts to find him. His disappearance came during a period of heavy snowfall and high avalanche risk in Tignes.

Melting snow has revealed the bodies of several skiers and snowboarders who went missing in the Alps and North America over the last winter, but many still remain missing:

• In the Alps, others missing including a 57-year old Swiss man caught in the worst avalanche incident in the Swiss Alps last winter, in the Vallon d’Arbi in Verbier that claimed the lives of three others.
• The body of the German billionaire, 58- year old Karl-Erivan Haub, also remains missing. He disappeared whilst on a solo day ski tour in Zermatt.
• Yesterday we reported that the body of 24-year-old snowboarder Vitaliy Datskiy, last seen on 21st January had been found near Mt Baker, WA. His body was found on the north face of Pan Dome and it appeared he had ducked under a rope.
• Search dogs at Bear Valley, CA recently located the body of 65-year-old Thomas Mullarkey who had been missing since 14th March. They found a ski pole and ski protruding from the snow, leading to his body just beneath the surface.
• In Chamonix in France, the body of a Swiss snowboarder was found on May 12th. He was killed in an avalanche on 4th March and his body was found as his snowboard was seen protruding out of the snow.
• In the resort of Whitefish, MT the body of Dr. Jonathan Torgerson has been found. He went missing on 17th February in an avalanche zone on the north side of the resort.