French Alps skier died trying off-piste route, inquest hears

Michael Rowell died in the Chamonix area of the French Alps

A man fell to his death while trying to find an off-piste skiing route in the French Alps, an inquest has heard.

Experienced skier Michael Rowell, 34, from Farnborough in Hampshire, travelled to the Chamonix area in March to go skiing with a friend.

Coroner Jason Pegg told a hearing in Winchester that Mr Rowell "simply misjudged the area" before slipping.

He said the death has been "desperately tragic" and recorded a conclusion of accidental death.

The inquest heard Mr Rowell and his friend Niall Jones decided to ski an off-piste route between black and red runs of the Aiguilles Rouges massif on their first full day on the slopes.

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, the court was told.

"They both sensibly stopped, they reassessed the situation, when they stopped - Mr Rowell was slightly ahead," Mr Pegg said.

"It seems Mike needed to remove his skis to make his way up the mountain and slipped into the steep area of snow... and tumbled on to the snow-covered rocks below."

'Very kind'

He said that Rowell, who had skied for 29 years, suffered multiple injuries that killed him instantly.

"It seems to me this was a desperately tragic accident, the coroner added.

"He simply misjudged the area where he was and slipped leading to the fall."

During the inquest, Mr Rowell's widow, Helen, said he was an experienced skier and described him as "very calm, very kind, very generous and very clever".

"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," she said.