Professional skier Juliette Willmann has died after being caught in an avalanche while skiing with her newlywed husband in Argentina’s Patagonian Andes.. She was 29.
The accident happened on Tuesday, September 29, when Willmann and her husband, Pierre-Idris Mehdi, were swept up in snow falling down the Cerro Creston mountain around 12:30 p.m. local time. Willmann was sent 1,300 feet down the mountain and buried under five feet of snow, according to a release from the government of Argentine province Santa Cruz.
Fellow skiers came to the couple’s aid, trying desperately to dig them out of the snow. Mehdi, 30, survived and was taken to the hospital for treatment without any serious injuries. Willmann, however, was unconscious when she was uncovered. Witnesses performed CPR with the help of a doctor communicating via radio, before it became clear that the attempt to save her life would ultimately be unsuccessful.
An investigation into the accident is ongoing, but the avalanche appears to have been caused by a slab break. The injuries that Willmann suffered, as well as her manner of death, have still not been determined.
Two days before she died, Willmann shared an Instagram carousel showing photos and video of her and her husband skiing down the same mountain.
“We started the day early in the morning, we had a 10km approach to reach the snow line,” she wrote in the caption. “The weather forecast was announcing [an] opening for the afternoon. By mid day it was still snowing and very cloudy, so we waited 2 hours, hoping the sun will come.”
Willmann continued, “Lucky us, the forecast was right and the sun came out and the clouds disappeared. We finished our way up to the top of Cerro Madsen to ski this beautiful line with perfect snow conditions. We feel so lucky to be here, in the mountains of Patagonia, exploring this amazing place. This trip in South America keeps blowing our mind, w @pierreidris_m 🤍.”
As news of Willmann’s death spread, other skiers took to social media to share their thoughts.
“She reminded me a bit of myself before becoming a mom,” freeride skier Jackie Paaso wrote via Instagram. “Meeting her could at times make me miss those carefree days, but it never came from a place of jealousy; I was just so incredibly happy to see her finding her way, never letting setbacks take her down, and constantly forging her path forward through life. If I were ever to have a little sister, I would have wanted her to be just like Juliette — kind, strong, intelligent, talented, and full of life.”
Spanish steep skier Aymar Navarro added in a post of his own that Willmann’s death is, “A hard blow to assimilate. Hard to find words between the rage, helplessness and the emptiness you’ve left.”
