Overview
- The freeride skier Juliette Willmann, who died Tuesday, Sept. 29, was declared dead on site by national park staff and mountain rescuers after an avalanche on Cerro Crestón near El Chaltén.
- Rescuers and local guides recovered Willmann and her companion, who was injured and evacuated to a hospital, after both were swept by the slide.
- Initial reports say a slab rupture in the snowpack likely triggered the avalanche and that the pair were carried roughly 400 metres with Willmann buried under about 1.5 metres of snow.
- An official inquiry has been opened to establish the exact circumstances of the accident and investigators are treating the early technical findings as provisional.
- Willmann, 29, was a noted figure in freeride and high-mountain skiing who won the Freeride World Qualifier in 2018 and competed on the Freeride World Tour through 2022, and her death has deeply affected the French ski community and her family.