Monday, 29 Sept 2014, two of the world's top skiers, the Chamonix-based, Swedish national, Andreas Fransson and the Canadian J.P. Auclair, died in an avalanche on a remote peak in South America.
Fransson, 31 and Auclair, 37 arrived in the Aysen region of Chile's Patagonia on Thursday, 25 Sept 2014 along with two cameramen from Sweden. They had been hiking the 3600m-high San Lorenzo mountain in Patagonia and disappeared when a cornice collapsed, triggering an avalanche that dragged them into a crevasse in Argentine territory.
Two members of the expedition, filmmaker Bjarne Salen and photographer Daniel Ronnback, survived the accident unharmed and received medical care at a local hospital. Police said the two provided valuable information to help locate the bodies of the two skiers. The corpses were spotted a day after the accident, from a helicopter during a multi-agency search that involved both Chilean and Argentine authorities.
Jean-Philippe Auclair and Andreas Fransson were described as legends in the extreme skiing community.
Fransson was perhaps best known for his solo first descent of Denali's south face in 2011 and for his feats in Chamonix. In 2010 an avalanche on the Aiguille de Verte broke his neck and nearly killed him.
Auclair was held in high esteem for his rare versatility, both in urban settings and in big mountains around the world. His street segment filmed in and around Trail, B.C., in the 2011 film All.I.Can stands as one of the most remarkable clips in ski film history.
When this expedition to the Andes got underway, Fransson and Auclair were excited, "Our Patagonia adventure just started! I'm so looking forward hanging out with @auclairjp @bjarnesalen @danielronnback for two weeks in the wild!" wrote Fransson on his personal website. Both he and Auclair were experienced extreme skiers.
They will be missed!
