Seasonnaire skier dies in the snow park at Grands Montets

With some fabulous spring conditions in the valley at the moment, this is the time of year that a lot of people take to the snow park and try and perfect those jumps and grabs on the more forgiving April snow. However, yesterday afternoon, tragedy struck in the park at Grands Montets when a 25 year old skier died after misjudging his landing on one of the kickers.

The victim has been named as Ed Cakebread, a seasonnaire and popular barman from La Terrasse in the centre of Chamonix. It appears that he had been skiing with friends in the park when he failed to pull off the landing on the 3rd blue kicker and landed on his neck.

Whilst the pisteurs were on site immediately, their efforts to resuscitate him for 30 minutes were not successful and he never regained consciousness after landing. A spokesperson from the PGHM said that it was not 100% clear how the event had ended so tragically, but it is believed that he died from shattered vertebrae.

Our thoughts and condolences go out to Ed's family and friends at home and here in Chamonix.