An avalanche in the French Alps claimed the lives of two skiers this week. In total, 30 skiers have lost their lives in one of the most deadly Alpine winters in memory. Like the majority of victims this season in France, the skiers had ignored avalanche warnings and ventured off-piste. 

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Among the fatalities are two British skiers who were caught in an avalanche earlier this month in Val d’Isère. 24 hours before their deaths, the avalanche warning in the resort had been raised to red for only the second time this century.   

One of the dead Britons was in the habit of posting clips of his off-piste adventures on social media. He described going off-piste as entering ‘our own world’ and last year captioned one video: ‘Exploring the Alps with my ski team…no need to go on the piste ever again.’ 

In an op-ed last week one Telegraph journalist said the ‘lure of untouched snow remains impossible to resist’ and therefore off-piste skiing ‘is worth the risk’. 

Skiing, certainly in Britain, is a middle-class sport, a chance for white-collar workers to escape the office and blow off some steam. In our safety-obsessed world, off-piste skiing is one of the few opportunities for excitement and........

© The Spectator