Pro Skier and Girlfriend Die in Tragic Mountain Fall
A skiing adventure in the Italian Alps turned into a tragedy for a professional skier and his girlfriend. According to the Italian Winter Sports Federation, 28-year-old Jean Daniel Pession and 27-year-old Elisa Arlian were in a "tragic mountain accident" over the weekend that cost them their lives.
According to Italian news outlet RAI, the couple fell nearly 2,300 feet while hiking Mount Zerbion in Italy's Aosta Valley. Their bodies were found buried in snow hours after their families reported them missing when they didn't come home from the hike.
"It took hours and hours of flying over to locate them. There were no traces on the rock to suggest where they had fallen," RAI explained. "Perhaps, while they continued along the ridge that divides the north and east faces, they slipped on the snow or the ground gave way."
It wasn't an unfamiliar area for them as they were headed to a peak they both knew. "They were almost at the summit, just a step away, when suddenly they were betrayed by the mountain they loved so much," RAI channel TG3 said in a video report posted on X. "When they were found, they were still tied together, like in a final embrace."
L'atleta di chilometro lanciato Jean Daniel Pession e la sua compagna Elisa Arlian, entrambi esperti di montagna e maestri di sci, sono morti precipitando dal Monte Zerbion, in Valle d'Aosta. Dopo ore di ricerche, i soccorritori hanno trovato i loro corpi sepolti dalla neve pic.twitter.com/rW13Zdn7qj
— Tg3 (@Tg3web) June 2, 2024
Pession, a native of the Aosta Valley, was an up-and-coming star on the global skiing scene. He was a member of the Italian World Cup ski team and an active athlete on the World Cup speed skiing circuit. He placed 15th in the 2021 World Cup and 22nd in the 2022 World Championships. Arlian worked a cross-country ski instructor.
It turns out their shared love for the snow kept them together until the end.