After an avalanche swept him into a crevasse in the French Alps, a 39-year-old skier crawled more than the length of a football field with two broken legs before rescuers found him alive.
Members of France’s CRS Savoie mountain-rescue team search a snow-covered slope near Pointe Sommeiller in the French Alps after a skier was swept into a crevasse by an avalanche on November 8, 2026. (Photo: CRS Savoie)
Updated November 10, 2026 01:42PM
A backcountry skier in France is lucky to be alive after an avalanche left him trapped in a crevasse for more than 36 hours with both legs broken.
The avalanche, which occurred in the French Alps, swept the skier into the crevasse on November 8, according to a Facebook statement from the French national police’s CRS Savoie mountain-rescue team. The skier crawled the length of a football field along a passage inside the crevasse, searching for a way out, before rescuers found him alive on November 9.
The 39-year-old, whose name has not been released, was on a solo backcountry ski trip near the French-Italian border. He was headed for the summit of Pointe Sommeiller, a 10,932-foot peak known for its steep, technical terrain, according to the French Alpine Club, when the avalanche hit.
The peak is located on the France-Italy border, 100 miles east of Grenoble.
Trapped Beneath the Snow
Details of the rescue were shared in the official Facebook post, and also in a news story published by French newspaper Le Dauphiné Libére.
According to these reports, the skier left the Alpine village of Bramans on November 7 and spent the night at a backcountry mountain hut before setting out the following morning to climb Pointe Sommeiller.
At the base of a steep, snow-filled chute, he strapped his skis to his pack and began booting up the slope in crampons. His weight triggered a slab avalanche that swept him into a crevasse, fracturing his femur and breaking his other lower leg. Stranded without cell service, he ditched his gear and began crawling down a sloping passage inside the crevasse, hunting for an exit to the surface.
He eventually reached a chamber roughly 50 feet beneath the snow, but the slope leading out was too steep to climb with broken legs, Major Yoann Haberey of the CRS Alpes mountain-rescue unit told Le Dauphiné Libéré.
A Five Hour Dig
A concerned relative reported the skier missing late on November 8, prompting a search that continued until approximately 2 A.M., after the risk of another avalanche forced rescuers to suspend operations.
Crews returned the following morning, when a helicopter spotted signs of the avalanche. Search teams began probing and digging through the snow, gradually uncovering the man’s skis and backpack.
After more than five hours of excavation, rescuers finally heard his voice coming from roughly 50 feet beneath them.
The man was conscious but suffering from hypothermia when crews reached him. They extracted him using a stretcher and winch system, lowered him roughly 650 vertical feet down the mountain, and evacuated him by helicopter to a hospital in southeastern France.
The operation involved 22 officers from France’s CRS mountain-rescue unit, six military police rescuers, and three helicopters.
“He really is a miracle survivor,” Haberey told Le Dauphiné Libéré. “They were forecasting snowfall overnight, so after that, we weren’t going to go back.”
Following the rescue, the CRS Savoie mountain-rescue team urged people heading into the mountains to adjust their plans to current conditions, prepare their routes and equipment, and know when to turn back.
“The mountain will always be there tomorrow,” the rescuers wrote.
