# French Alps avalanche deaths rise to six after three more skiers are killed The death toll from avalanches in the French Alps climbed to six over the weekend after three more skiers were killed on Sunday, despite warnings that conditions were dangerous. The AFP report carried by South China Morning Post says three separate avalanches killed three off-piste skiers on Sunday, following three earlier deaths on Saturday. The weekend’s deaths came even though the weather service had warned of a high avalanche risk and advised against off-piste skiing. One of the victims on Sunday was a British man in his 50s who was buried while skiing off-piste at La Plagne resort in southeastern France. More than 50 rescuers searched for nearly an hour and found him under 2.5 metres of snow, but he could not be revived. In another incident, rescue teams recovered the body of a skier buried in an avalanche at Courchevel, while a 32-year-old off-piste skier died after being caught in an avalanche at Vallorcine in Haute-Savoie. The reporting does not identify the other three victims from the previous day, but it confirms that the weekend’s total reached six. The incidents occurred in separate parts of the French Alps, showing that the danger was not limited to one slope or one resort. The source material emphasizes that the warnings were already in place. That matters because it frames the deaths as incidents that occurred in clearly hazardous conditions rather than as surprises. The weather service alerts and off-piste warnings were meant to reduce exposure, yet multiple skiers still ventured into risky terrain. Rescue operations were substantial. In the La Plagne case alone, the deployment of more than 50 rescuers underlines how quickly avalanche response can become a large-scale operation. Even so, the terrain and the depth of the burial left little margin for survival. The packet does not provide the skiers’ identities beyond the British nationality and approximate age of one victim, and it does not discuss whether any of them were traveling together. It does show that the same weather hazard produced multiple fatal incidents in a single weekend. The sharp rise in deaths is a reminder of how fast mountain conditions can change and how lethal avalanche conditions remain even for experienced skiers. With the weekend’s toll now at six, French Alpine resorts are left confronting another deadly reminder of the risks of leaving marked terrain when warnings are severe.