A skier from Tyneside has plunged 2,000 feet to his death from a mountain in the French Alps.

Experienced mountaineer David Tapsfield, 28, was swept down a mountain near Chamonix after a fall triggered an avalanche.

A friend of David’s, who was with him but uninjured in the tragedy on Tuesday, frantically dug his friend out of the snow and tried to resuscitate him.

He alerted the emergency services who airlifted him to hospital.

But, tragically, he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The tragedy happened at about 1pm on Tuesday on Mont Buet, the highest mountain peak in the Chamonix area outside of the Mont Blanc Massif when David, from Whitley Bay, was with friend Lorne Cameron, from Glasgow.








Ian Bogie, ex Gateshead and Stockport manager, who helped run the scheme at the college knew David and is devastated by the news of his death.

Ian, of Tynemouth, said: “I am absolutely shocked. I can’t believe that this has happened to David.

“He was a very talented footballer and he was on our scheme. He went off to Lafeyatte College over in America and he was there for two or three years and got his degree.

“He came back and he was looking for some work in the sporting business.

“When he came home he trained with us on the beach to keep up his level of fitness. The new recruits for the scheme were starting and David joined us in our training.

“He was genuinely a smashing lad and I’m so shocked.

“There will be a lot of people on Tyneside who will be devastated by this awful news.”

A snow cornice is formed by wind blowing snow over a sharp terrain break, such as the crest of a mountain or along the sides of gullies, where it attaches and builds out horizontally.

It is extremely dangerous to ski or hike on them or underneath them.

The vulnerability of the structure poses a high risk of triggering avalanches.

They are particularly dangerous during sunny weather.

The area has experienced warm weather during the past week.