The snowboarder who died in an avalanche in the French Alps on Tuesday, is a 22-year-old student from Nijmegen. Daily De Gelderlander just brought the news. Two students who are still missing, 21 and 25 years old, are also coming from Nijmegen. The three were on a ski trip with the student association NSN Nijmegen.

The families are notified. Rescuers have been looking for the two missing students since 7.30 this morning. A spokesman from the association Nijmeegse Studentenvereniging de Navigators (NSN) confirms to daily AD that the victims were part of a group of twenty students who were on a skitrip.

According to French media, the three were snowboarding in the Le Seuil area, about 60 kilometers from Grenoble. The snowboarders allegedly went to an extremely dangerous part of the mountains, outside the safe zones. The area is known for avalanches.

The body of the 22-year-old snowboarder was found today. The other two have disappeared in the huge amount of snow the avalanche created, yesterday around 16.00. The search started off slowly, because it took a while before rescuers were alarmed.

Helicopter
The French paper Le Dauphiné Libéré says that one of the victims sent a text message to another member of the group. The message wasn’t noticed until 17.00. It wasn’t until 19.30 that the first rescue helicopter took off to find the Dutch students.

The three did not bring avalanche beepers, according to French media. Beepers are devices that help rescuers to find people who are covered by the snow.

Christian
Members of NSN are defeated by the news. The six members of the board came together at the society’s office to figure out what to do. Not all members have been notified about the tragic ski accident in France. NSN is a Christian student association in Nijmegen ‘of beer and bible’. The association counts more than 200 active members. / De Gelderlander