An experienced skier fell to his death while attempting to find an off-piste route in the French Alps, an inquest has heard. Michael Rowell, 34, from Farnborough, Hampshire, travelled to the Chamonix area in March this year to go skiing with friend Niall Jones.
On their first full day on the slopes, the pair decided to ski an off-piste route between black and red runs of the Aiguilles Rouges massif. The Winchester hearing was told that during their descent, the pair realised the route was not safe to continue and they stopped with the intention of retracing their steps to find a better approach to the slope.
Coroner Jason Pegg said: “They both sensibly stopped, they reassessed the situation, when they stopped, Mr Rowell was slightly ahead. Mike stepped forward to see if there was an identifiable run, they decided to turn where they came from.”
He said that Mr Jones started heading up the mountain and did not see Mr Rowell as he fell down the side of the mountain. Mr Pegg continued: “It seems Mike needed to remove his skis to make his way up the mountain and slipped into the steep area of snow and sadly he slipped down that area over an edge and tumbled on to the snow-covered rocks below.”
He said that Mr Rowell, who had skied for 29 years, suffered multiple injuries to his head, chest and liver which would have killed him instantly. Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Pegg said: “It seems to me this was a desperately tragic accident, he simply misjudged the area where he was and slipped leading to the fall. Those injuries were such that he passed away instantly.”
During the inquest, Mr Rowell’s widow, Helen, described him as “very calm, very kind, very generous and very clever”. She said he was a very experienced skier and added: “They would have had their map out the night before, worked out where they were going to go, he was perfectly capable of skiing off-piste.”
