Seven year Old British skier dies in accident in French Alps.

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Very very sad, RIP little one

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@Roger C, I've been on solo trips amongst the high peaks and have sometimes been in considerable trouble - clagged in, failed gear, bad ground, slabs and cornice. There have been times where I've stopped to take stock and felt very, very lonely and pretty damned scared. But it's me who has put myself there. And I've had the experience and physical and mental resources to get out of nasty places and get down. To think of a seven year old mite being alone at altitude in the Alps and having to deal with the same feelings is very upsetting. Very upsetting. Just not right.

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Lots of good, respectful points on here - I think everyone knows that whatever the level, wherever you ski, our wonderful passion is fraught with hazards and until the full story emerges it is right to keep a lid on any views.
Poor little mite and condolences to his poor. poor family x

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We are on a family holiday in Sharm el sheikh. Last night I gave my son an extra big cuddle and reiterated to him once again why he needs to stick with us at all times.

I told him what had happened to the little boy to help him understand why I tell him to keep me in sight when we are on the slopes.

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@achilles, I think it's fairly obvious to all concerned that we have to look out for our children. Discussion here will not add anything to that.
Given that these are British skiers and the chances are high that they will look into this site I would find it respectful to just let the matter lie until the results of the enquiry are out.

Can't stop thinking about this since I saw it reported in the news. Absolutely tragic, devastating. The grief being felt by the family is unthinkable. Can't help thinking about all of the times I've skied with my own boys over the years. Have I ever let them out of my sight? I'm sure I have - not for long for sure, around a corner, wait at the next junction. It doesn't take long. Never again.

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This is so devastating, that poor poor family, my heart goes out to them. It is very easy to say that we should keep our children right beside us at all times, but can any parent really say that this is always the case? If you have one child only then you can maybe manage it but as soon as you are with 2, 3 or more children then it becomes very difficult to watch them at all times. A truly tragic accident, and thankfully very rare.

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Tragedy and doesn't bear thinking about.

Poor parents.

You know it makes sense.

RIP Carwyn.

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@pam w, ^ +1

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As well as the family hard times for the rescue workers, some of whom have been down at the A320 crash site.

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@Julieanne, ^ +1

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@Julieanne, +1

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@Julieanne, +1. The impact on a family of the death of a child can't be measured in column inches.

@pam w, losing a child, whatever their age, is incomparable to any other bereavement. Grief cannot be measured or verified by statistics, however it changes the lives of a family forever. I, personally, did read all the newspaper reports of my daughter's accident, and the consequence of the media coverage played a part in trying to prevent similar fatalities.

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As a parent, just thinking about this too painful. Perhaps a lesson the ski community can learn is to be vigilant and look out for children who have become separated from their parents. I saw a young boy crying loudly whilst walking down a piste in Italy in February. It made me very sad and think of my own son. unfortunately I could do nothing as I was on a chairlift. It also saddened me that nobody had stopped to help him.

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This obviously a tragic incident. It is easy to read the media reports and lay blame with the parents but, as has already been expressed, the facts have not been formally established and I am sure every parent on here can think of incidents with our own children where a situation could have been very different to that intended.

We lost our 9 year old son for a while in Zell am See last year, one second he was with the group and the next second he was not. This was despite an adult in front and an adult behind the kids. I skied down where we had intended to go and where I thought he had most probably gone, did not see him and whilst some waited at the bottom of the slope I went back up to look again. I went to where we know we last saw him and looked down the other route the led off from there and I could see a small figure in the distance walking back up the piste. I skied down and , of course, it was him. The poor lad was crying his eyes out. He'd just got to the last point we stopped and skied the wrong way. He had realised we were not with him after a couple of hundred metres and stopped but then no one came and so he started walking back.

Of course, the relief was immense and that was only after about 20-30 minutes. He'd done what we told him to do in case of any separation and stopped but I was really shocked no one stopped when they saw a crying child on the piste.

I second the poster above who says that we all need to be vigilant and look out for kids on the piste. NO parent sets out to put their child at risk but things can happen very quickly and it's all too easy to assume someone is looking after a child. I know this year I was not only looking out for my kids but also for any others I thought were not obviously with an adult. Fortunately I did not see any but it's not always obvious that a kid is with someone.

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One obvious thing that we do these days is give the children mobile phones so that we can always find each other. We too have been in situations where suddenly one child is missing on the piste... awful feeling. I simply can't imagine what the parents of this child are going through.

You know it makes sense.

We lost one of our kids in Whistler for quite a while. As he was 15 and 6ft tall it didn't seem important to anyone we approached at the time. We were worried sick as all attempts to find him had failed so far. Eventually found him safe looking rather fed up. He'd lost us as his Dad had bought a new black jacket and he's followed someone wearing a red one.

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Have lost a child on the slopes, slightly younger than that poor child, I know just how easy it is for that to happen, inspite of the best laid plans, and all reasonable precautions. My heart truly goes out to that family. Our son, thankfully, turned up safe and sound, some hours after we became separated, but he had skied a long way on his own, and taken several lifts to get from Les Gets where we became separated back to the the ski hire shop in Morzine where we were leaving out kit each night!

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@CaravanSkier, you must have been distraught by the time you found him, but he was obviously very resourceful to find his way there.

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Two years ago in Italy we lost one of our party for just a few minutes. We'd arrived about 2pm on a Sunday and all eight of us (two families) dashed out for a quick ski. Near white-out conditions, deep fresh snow, unknown resort, completely deserted pistes. All ingredients for near disaster. One father takes the lead and I follow as tail end Charlie. Half-way down a run we stop for a breather and find the 15 year old son of other family is absent. Not a single person in sight above us or below us. Is the boy somehow ahead of us? We stood on the piste for possibly only five or maybe 10 minutes but in ever increasing panic. Finally the boy appeared. He'd skied just off the edge of the piste by about two metres, fallen in a hollow, and lost his ski in the deep snow. All ended happily, but it was a horrible few minutes, particularly so because in the 5-10 minutes we waited we hadn't seen another living soul and had little idea of the fastest way to find anyone.

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@Hells Bells, yes I was, I burst into tears when we were told he had been located safe and sound! We were all terrified! It is the only time I can ever remember our older two missing meals and not complaining they were hungry! And true to form when we reunited with our youngest the very first thing he said, was 'I`m hungry'. I did not know whether to be cross with him, proud of him, or just to feel very very guilty.

These days we could have tracked him in most resorts by the use of his lift pass, or by contact on a mobile phone, all those years back things were a little different!

No doubt the facts of this recent tragedy will emerge in due course, but his parents must be in a dreadful state.

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BBC now reporting:

Michel Ollagnon, police commander for the south-eastern town of Bonneville, said the family were making their last descent of the mountain when Carwyn's mother stopped to help his sister who had fallen. It is thought he wandered off from the rest of the family who then lost sight of him.

Just awful for all concerned.

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This is such a painful event to even contemplate.

It is certainly best to reserve any judgements or conclusions until a proper investigation establishes the facts (if indeed the facts can ever be fully determined).

Young children can be both vulnerable and elusive. Our 7 year old son was lost in Val Thorens whilst in the care of ski school (which school is irrelevant as I am sure it could happen to any of them). He was in competition class and extremely competent - skiing in variable conditions - however a momentary lapse meant he turned one way where the piste divided and the rest of the class turned the other. His loss of elevation and visibility by the time he realised meant climbing back up was not an option.

Our first knowledge was when his ski class returned at lunch time without him. As it happened the instructor vanished sharply without talking to us - we obviously sensed something was wrong. The ski school manager came up to us very soon after. Our son had by that stage already been located. After being lost our son told us that he had been "found" at the side of the piste by a French couple who recognised his distress - something they probably recognised because he was wearing a ski school bib but was alone (yes he was upset despite being full of ski bravado). The couple skied him to the base of the next chairlift where the lift attendant took him in the hut to keep him warm. The lift attendant radioed ski school (based on the bib he was wearing). Ski school sent an instructor to collect him. He was led down by the instructor and thrilled that he had been given a fast work out by his own personal instructor - returning with a smile on his face when the instructor told us what a fine skier he was.

A happy ending but lessons learnt.

We are eternally grateful to the French couple - who we never met - and who clearly knew exactly what to do and gave an object lesson in when to intervene and how to handle a situation. We subsequently allowed him the freedom of occasional free skiing whilst with us in clear conditions only and always to a clearly marked waypoint on-piste ahead and "in sight" - because we believed it was an important skill for him to learn piste awareness rather than just "follow my leader". He always responded to the responsibility.

I only mention this event because it wasn't until this awful tragedy was reported that the full enormity of that day in Val Thorens in 1997 dawned on me - it might have been so different.

It is only once the facts are known that conclusions can be drawn and lessons can be learnt. In the meantime it is meaningless and premature to judge anything or anyone.

My thoughts .......... are with the family and friends who can only be in unimaginable torment.

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As a father of a 7yo, just back from a ski trip together, I can hardly begin to imagine what the family must be going through. It breaks my heart to see Carwyn's picture and know that he's no longer with us.

I think most of us know how easy it is to get separated; often it only takes a moment. Even as adults skiing together you're sometimes left wondering whether one of your group is above or below you, and that's even after you've been skiing for decades with the same people.

My brother and I got separated in some light fog earlier this year (we're in our 40s) on a red (Maduit just below the middle station of Saulire Express above Meribel, if you know it). I was following the left markers, my brother was following the right, and after a fork in the piste, he was most surprised to find himself no longer on Maduit. I saw him go, but too late, and we met at the bottom. We've been skiing the area 30+ years...

My strong suspicion is that once the facts are known, poor Carwyn's accident will be seen as one of those very unlucky things that it is difficult to account for. As such, it's vital that the family's grief is not worsened by them attaching blame to themselves. This is a classic case of the proverbial holes in the cheese lining up.

What can we do to mitigate the risk of such accidents in future? What can we parents do? I like the comments I've read so far about what to do if separated:

Advice to stay where you are. (Always the best thing?)
Mobile phone. Programme numbers of parents and piste patrol (normally printed on maps)?
I used to ski about with those walkie talkies that became popular about 15 years ago, but gave up as I found I wasn't using them much and nowadays very rarely get separated as I ski slower and my awareness is better. And I suppose we've all got mobiles phones now. But it strikes me that these are potentially very quick and easy for a child to use - push to talk - and will work even in areas of weak mobile phone reception provided you're not too far away. Views?
One thing that we do with our daughter is give her some emergency money and a piece of paper with my and her mum's mobile numbers so that a helper could phone us. It also has our accommodation address.
Sometimes it's possible to get confused between which side of the piste a line of poles are marking, and inadvertently stray off-piste that way. It might be worth reinforcing the difference between LH and RH markers, where it exists - normally orange tops on RH going down in France, I think.

I guess the main thing is to have thought about the eventualities and have discussed what you could or would do in different scenarios in an age-appropriate way.
What else?

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Our daughter (5 yro), we've drilled into her if she did get lost or lose her instructor or us, to stand by the side of the piste and show the card in her pocket to someone who stops ask them to contact us with the phone numbers on them.

We put the numbers on card rather than paper, and in the inside pocket with her lift pass, the pocket is sealed, and we tell her never to take anything out unless it's for someone to see our contact numbers on. It also contains the chalet/company we are staying with and their contact number.

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What they said. You're not going to prevent getting split up, but you can deal with the consequences.

If I started looking for and then talking to lone kids on the slope I reckon the parents would get me arrested. You can't have it both ways with that one.

One thing people tend to do before they get rescued is to make their situation worse. Advice here (stop still where you are) is absolutely right almost always.

To come back to the rescue workers, I found a link to the diary entry of the former head of the Chamonix PG describing a search for two kids (3rd post)

http://pistehors.com/news/forums/viewreply/4269/index.html

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I guess it doesn't help that we tell our kids not to talk to strangers. Could that affect them when they are lost? And many people (not me) have reservations about talking to lone children in case their actions are misinterpreted. It's a sad world we live in.

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Seven year Old British skier dies in accident in French Alps.

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