Alpine skiing is not for the faint-hearted. Even professional competitive skiers who dedicate their entire lives to the craft are not safe from accidents. Despite these risks, every year, skiing enthusiasts flock to popular locations across the globe in the winter to experience the thrill of speeding down the slopes. Sadly, many people lose their lives.

Such was the case when a 44-year-old woman from Savoie, France, met her untimely demise while out with two others in the La Norma Ski Area in France’s Haute-Maurienne. The woman was skiing in the off-piste Saint-Antoine Valley when a 200-meter-wide avalanche barreled down the slope, burying the woman. The unfortunate incident is the second avalanche-related death in the region.

The first one involved a group of six skiers on Christmas day. Multiple French news outlets reported the death of a 14-year-old teen who was skiing with his friends in Les Arcs, France. The group also fell victim to an avalanche in an off-piste area of the Aiguille Rouge. And while the others avoided burial, the boy couldn’t escape. Despite being dug out within 20 minutes, emergency workers couldn’t resuscitate the teenager.

Meanwhile, Ici Paris reported the 44-year-old wasn’t carrying an avalanche beacon, and local ski patrol used a probe to locate her. They found her buried under 120 cm (3.93 feet) of snow, and by the time they dug her out, the Savoie native had been under the snow for over an hour. However, these tragic incidents didn’t happen out of nowhere.

Just days before the teenager’s passing, Météo-France, the official French meteorological administration, issued an avalanche warning. “Heavy snowfall from the mid-mountains on the Northern Alps, generating a high risk of avalanches,” they posted on December 23. The avalanche warning level remains at three out of five in the Savoie region.

Unfortunately, these two deaths aren’t the only avalanche-related tragedies that have struck the skiing community recently.

The Swiss skiing community lost an icon

On the same day, Météo-France issued an avalanche warning in France, another one occurred in Switzerland, claiming the life of a national icon. On December 23, Swiss Olympian and national snowboard cross team member Sophie Hediger met a tragic end in an avalanche in Arosa, Switzerland. Walter Reusser, the CEO of Sport at Swiss-Ski, mourned the demise of the athlete.

“For the Swiss Ski family, the tragic death of Sophie Hediger has a dark shadow over the Christmas days,” said Reusser. “We are immeasurably sad. We will keep an honorable memory of Sophie,” added the CEO. At 26, Hediger was yet another promising young athlete who met an untimely demise on the slopes after Matilde Lorenzi in October.

She had represented Switzerland in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and looked forward to doing the same in 2026. Counting Sophie Hediger, three people have met their demise because of avalanches in six days from December 23 to 28. However, as the likelihood of further avalanches remains high in the Savoie region, authorities are trying hard to warn people about the threats of skiing, right now.

According to Powder, experts have reminded skiers to carry avalanche beacons, probes, and shovels when venturing off-piste.