Severe Alpine weather has claimed the life of a British skier who is thought to have been caught in a small avalanche on Christmas Day. The forty-three-year-old man has been identified as Londoner, Nigel Jackson. He was holidaying in La Tour in Chamonix with his girlfriend and two other friends over the Christmas period. Although there were weather warnings issued for Christmas Day by officials at Chamonix the group decided to risk going out on the slopes. It is thought that Mr. Jackson was trying to ski between two of the pistes at La Tour when he was knocked down by a small avalanche. Officials say there would have been zero visibility on the slopes because of blizzards.

Mr. Jackson’s friends alerted the authorities when he failed to return to the chalet they were renting. A search party was sent out but the search had to be called off because of the weather. Mr. Jackson was not wearing a transceiver. At 3pm on Boxing Day Mr. Jackson’s body was discovered. Mr. Jackson’s parents have flown to France to deal with the police and arrange for the body to be returned to the U.K.

The search still continues for another Brit who has gone missing at a Swiss ski resort. Twenty-three-year-old Myles Robinson disappeared last Tuesday in Wengen. His disappearance occurred in the early hours of the morning after he left the Blue Monkey Bar to walk a friend back to her hotel. Although he was staying at another hotel just a couple of hundred yards away there is no trace of him.