Avalanche in French Alps kills renowned doctor

PARIS – A doctor renowned for treating injured mountaineers died Monday after an avalanche in the French Alps.

An officer with the Chamonix mountain guides service said the avalanche occurred in the Aiguilles Rouges range, near the Chamonix ski resort and across from the Mont Blanc massif.

Four skiers — one woman and three men — were injured too. Searches in the sector have been called off after all skiers caught in the avalanche were accounted for, the officer said.

The guide service identified the dead skier as Dr. Emmanuel Cauchy, who notably treated French climber Elisabeth Revol after she survived a storm in the Himalayas in January that killed her Polish climbing partner.

Cauchy started a training institute called Ifremmont to train mountain emergency doctors and share expertise in the field.

Cauchy was an experienced mountain guide himself, the officer said. The circumstances of the death are under investigation.

The sector was under an avalanche risk level 3 on a 5-point scale.

The nationalities and ages of those injured have not been released.

More than a dozen people have died in avalanches in the French Alps this year.