British tourist, 27, killed in avalanche while skiing in the Andes

A British tourist has died while skiing after an avalanche in the Andes.

Andrea Marshall, 27, was skiing with two friends near Bariloche in Argentina when she was buried under snow and rocks.

Her body was found at around 11pm on Wednesday following an extensive search and rescue operation.

She was named in Argentina as the victim of Wednesday’s tragedy following initial erroneous reports identifying her as an Irish national.

The two survivors have been named locally as Augusto Gruttadauria, from the city of Cordoba nearly 1,000 miles north-east of Bariloche, and local man Christian Erauskin.

They are both said to have been suffering from hypothermia when they were found and brought down to safety from the 7,178ft Cerro Lopez mountain following the avalanche just after 5pm local time on Wednesday.

Augusto was found and rescued alive after being buried under snow for 15 hours.

Andrea is originally from Scotland but is thought to have been based in the Aran Valley in the Spanish Pyrenees, where she worked as a ski instructor.

She described herself as a keen mountaineer and shared plenty of pictures and videos on social media of her skiing and rock climbing.

The Bariloche Alpine Club Rescue Commission said an investigation into the avalanche has been launched, and said the main hypothesis is that the skiers themselves caused it.

The avalanche risk when Andrea and her colleagues went out on Wednesday is said to have been ‘considerable’.

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