British woman dies in avalanche while skiing with friends in Argentina
A British woman has died in an avalanche while skiing with friends in Argentina.
The woman, in her 20s, was skiing with two friends in the Andes mountains near the Patagonian city of Bariloche when she was buried under snow and rocks.
Her body was found around 11 p.m. local time on Wednesday evening after a search and rescue operation that lasted for hours and continued into Thursday morning.
She was identified in Argentina as a victim of Wednesday’s tragedy after initial incorrect reports identified her as an Irish citizen.
An FCDO spokesman said: ‘We are supporting the family of a British woman who died in Argentina and are in contact with local authorities.’
The two survivors are locally named Augusto Gruttadauria, from the city of Cordoba, nearly 1,000 miles northeast of Bariloche, and local man Christian Erauskin.
Rescue teams were working after the avalanche on Mount Lopez that killed a British tourist, while two other people were rescued on Cerro Lopez near Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina, on September 5
A British woman has been found dead after being swept away by an avalanche in the Andes of southern Argentina
The Bariloche Alpine Club Rescue Commission has said the main hypothesis is that the skiers themselves triggered the avalanche
A large-scale search was launched, using dogs and avalanche search equipment.
They were both said to be suffering from hypothermia when they were found and brought to safety from the iconic 2,180-metre (7,000-foot) Cerro Lopez mountain after the avalanche just after 5pm local time on Wednesday.
Augusto was the last of three people rescuers were able to reach early Thursday morning after he had been under the snow for 15 hours.
He had managed to climb up, stick his arm out of the snow and make a distress call.
When she and her colleagues set out on Wednesday, the avalanche danger was “considerable.”
Wednesday’s incident was classified as a D3 disaster by the American Avalanche Association, meaning the storm was powerful enough to “bury and destroy a car, damage a semi-truck, or destroy a wooden home.”
According to the Bariloche Alpine Club Rescue Commission, the main hypothesis is that the skiers themselves triggered the avalanche.
The British Embassy in Buenos Aires told the Herald of Buenos Aires: ‘We are supporting the family of a British citizen who died in Argentina and are in contact with local authorities.’
An investigation into the tragedy has been launched.