This is very sad. The passenger who died, Gérard Croz, had been the subject of a documentary that was shown on French TV in the Rhone-Alpes region the weekend before the accident.
He was a charming man, with a deep love of the mountains and a lovely sense of humour. He spoke about how he loved to work on the mountain early in the morning before the skiers arrived, and at the end of the day when they had left. Without perhaps being aware of it, he was a fine philosopher who spoke simply but profoundly about man's place in the world as he saw it.
He also spoke at length about the risks involved in his work, and about the colleagues who had died in avalanches and other accidents. He said that he hoped to live to an old age, but that if that wasn't to happen an accident on the Grands Montets mountain would be something he could understand.
The Chamonix valley is a small community, despite the thousands of tourists who flock there in winter. The Croz family are one of about half a dozen who's history in the valley can be traced back for centuries. The cemetries in Chamonix and Argentière are filled with members of this family who have died young in accidents on the mountain, and sadly their number has risen again.
The helicopter pilots in Chamonix do an incredible job in the most horrendous weather conditions. I know 2 people who would certainly be dead today if a pilot in the Chamonix valley hadn't persevered in his attempts to get a rescue team to them just before a storm arrived. It's such a shame that an accident like this gets international news coverage, while nobody ever hears of the lives they save every week. But that, I suppose, is life.