Terrifying moment massive avalanche smothers crowd of fleeing skiers in Italian Alps

Dramatic footage of an avalanche in the Italian Alps showing the moment skiers attempt to flee from the vast plume of snow.

A mass of snow can be seen rumbling down a steep slope towards a crowd of skiers near the Italian resort of Courmayeur on Tuesday.

Waiting at the Zerotta chairlift in Val Veny, the crowd at first appears indifferent, some even skiing towards the huge avalanche. But in the moments before it hits, many start frantically trying to escape the descending white cloud of snow and ice.

Young children can be seen desperately trying to sky uphill away from the avalanche, while several stumble to the ground as they sought safety. There were no reports of any casualties.

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It is the latest in a series of avalanches which have struck the European Alps, in a deadly week which has seen at least three Britons killed in France.

The avalanche in Courmayeur came just days after two people were killed in an avalanche in the same resort on Sunday, around 200km from where the Winter Olympic Games are taking place in Milan.

Italy’s alpine rescuers said last week that fresh snowfall from recent storms, combined with wind-swept snowcaps resting on weak internal layers, has created particularly hazardous conditions across the entire Alpine crescent, which borders France, Switzerland, and Austria.

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On Tuesday, a British man and a French man died near the resort town of La Grave in the French Alps, bringing the total number of avalanche-related deaths in France to 27, according to Le Monde.

The avalanche risk in the La Grave area was listed as “high” on Tuesday, according to the French weather service Meteo France.

On Monday, two British skiers and another French skier were killed while skiing off-piste in the Val d’Isère ski resort in south-east France when they were swept away by an avalanche late on Friday morning. One of the Britons was named as keen skier Leslie Stuart.

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Meteo France had issued a red alert for avalanches in the area just one day before the incident, with Val d’Isère ski resort strongly advising skiers against going off-piste.

Last Thursday, rescuers said a record 13 skiers, climbers, and hikers have died in the Italian mountains in the week beforehand. Ten of those fatalities were attributed to avalanches, triggered by an exceptionally unstable snowpack.

“Under such conditions, the passage of a single skier, or natural overloading from the weight of snow, can be sufficient to trigger an avalanche,” Federico Catania, spokesman for Italy’s Alpine Rescue Corps, warned.