Fatal accidents in the mountains: is it possible to ban off-piste skiing in France ?

Several fatal accidents have been reported in the mountains in recent days. Tragedies that took place while the victims were skiing in off-piste areas. Is it really possible to ban this practice??

Multiple accidents have been reported in France in recent days in mountainous areas. This Saturday, a 44-year-old woman died while skiing with her partner and a friend off-piste in Savoie. This Tuesday, a 36-year-old man lost his life, also off-piste, in Flaine (Haute-Savoie).

The day after this dramatic accident, a 14-year-old boy also lost his life, also in an off-piste area, in the Arcs 2000 resort, in the Vanoise massif. The avalanche was triggered by a skier passing upstream from where the young boy was with his family.

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“Anything that is accessible by gravity”

Faced with these dramatic accidents, is it possible to ban this dangerous practice? ? It's not as simple as that. Indeed, there are several versions defining off-piste. First, the legal and historical definition of a ski area: “Any area that can be traced by gravity by a skier who would leave from the top of a ski lift and who would return to the resort”, explains Blaise Agresti, former officer at the head of the Chamonix high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM). It thus includes the marked slopes, but also the off-piste, thus leading to the securing of “everything that is accessible by gravity”, according to Le Parisien.

“Mayors or resort managers are fighting for a very restrictive interpretation: the off-piste domain is everything that is not a marked slope”, explains Blaise Agresti. She prefers a “common sense definition” : anything that has not been restricted as a secured ski area, via ropes or signs.

A ban attempted in 1999

In 1999, in Chamonix (Haute-Savoie), there was an attempt to ban off-piste skiing by the prefect. For administrative case law, “constitutional law guarantees freedom of movement. An area may be regulated or prohibited, but for reasons other than safety: the mountains are freely accessible in France”, he says.

85% fatal accidents

According to a report published in 2019 by the National School of Mountain Sports, accidents related to avalanches mainly concern ski touring and off-piste activities. À 85% of these are fatal accidents.