A British skier who went missing on Christmas Day has been found dead in the French Alps after being caught in an avalanche.
The body of Nigel Jackson, 43, who had been staying in an hotel in the resort of Chamonix Mont Blanc, was found under snow on Boxing Day. Mr Jackson, who was originally from Liverpool but had moved to London, went skiing in Le Tour ski area on Christmas Day with three friends, despite bad weather.
The party, which included Mr Jackson’s girlfriend, were staying at Les Aiglons hotel. They had decided to ski one last run, though Mr Jackson, a keen skier, separated from the group and agreed to meet them at the bottom. When he failed to arrive, his worried friends contacted the mountain police and a search involving a helicopter began. Police believe that he skied between two marked pistes and was caught in a small avalanche.
One friend said: “We are in shock. It was a freak accident. The avalanche was not even big.” Mr Jackson’s parents have flown to France to meet police and to arrange for his body to be returned to Britain.
A police spokesman said: “We found the body of a British man at 3pm on Saturday at Le Tour. We think he had been skiing between two pistes and was caught in an avalanche. The weather was very bad on Christmas Day. “A ski patrol searched for him and then we searched with a helicopter but we couldn’t see anything. He was not wearing an avalanche transceiver.”
The avalanche risk in Chamonix, which is near the French borders with Switzerland and Italy, has been classed as “considerable” over the Christmas period. Mr Jackson’s death is the second fatality in a week in the area. A French skier from Limoges was caught in an avalanche with two other people who managed to remain on the surface of the slide. The skier who was killed was also not equipped with an avalanche transceiver and was buried.
Meanwhile, the parents of a British man who went missing in a Swiss ski resort last week are continuing to hunt for their son. Myles Robinson, 23, from London, has not been seen since the early hours of Tuesday as he returned from a bar in the Swiss ski village of Wengen, southeast of Berne. His family and friends are conducting their own door-to-door inquiries in the search for the former Charterhouse public school pupil.
Swiss police have called in specialist search teams using heat-seeking devices and helicopters to find Mr Robinson, who was last seen escorting a family friend back to her hotel. He had spent the evening playing pool and drinking beer with Amy O’Brien and other friends in a bar. He walked Ms O’Brien to her door, only 300 metres from his own apartment, but has not been seen since.
More than 70 friends and villagers joined Mr Robinson’s family to knock on doors in Wengen. Cara, 25, his sister, said: “We are asking villagers if we can come into their houses and look around their properties. There might be some clue. The police, who have been so good, said they can’t search houses without applying for search warrants.”
A friend said: “He was perfectly capable of walking home. He wasn’t really drunk. She presumed he was going to walk back to his family’s apartment which is just a few minutes’ walk away.” Mr Robinson’s mother Sarah, 59, is a former president of the British Alpine Racing Ski Club.
