Pro freeride skier Juliette Willmann died after an avalanche swept her 1,300 feet down an Argentine mountain and buried her under five feet of snow, while her husband survived.
Juliette Willmann, 29, and her husband, Pierre-Idris Mehdi, 30, were skiing on Mount Cerro Crestón in the Patagonian Andes when a mass of snow broke loose around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The slide carried the couple down the mountain from a height of 10,171 feet.
The US Sun reported that Willmann was buried under a five-foot mound of ice and snow after the plunge of 1,312 feet. Rescuers found her without vital signs. Multiple rounds of CPR failed to revive her. Mehdi survived and was evacuated for medical treatment. An investigation into her death has been launched.
About 15 minutes after the avalanche, a distress beacon went off. Other skiers began digging while help raced toward the scene.
Teams from Argentina’s National Parks, police, Civil Defense services, medics, and specialized mountain rescue units joined the search. After hours on the mountain, crews reached the pair around 5 p.m.
Willmann was already without vital signs. Medics could not bring her back. Her husband was alive and taken out for care. Authorities have opened an investigation, though no findings or cause determination have been released publicly.
Willmann was a professional freeride and ski mountaineering athlete. She competed on the Freeride World Tour from 2019 to 2022.
Born in Marseille, she grew up in the French Alps and first put on skis at age two. Her parents taught skiing. Her sister competed for the French alpine skiing team. Willmann also trained in judo, running, mountain biking, and rugby.
She had already tested herself in some of the world’s hardest mountain environments, including Nepal’s Dhaulagiri region at roughly 19,700 feet. The Patagonia trip fit the pattern of a skier who sought big lines and remote ranges.
Before the avalanche, Willmann posted on Instagram about the same range that later claimed her life.
"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."
In a 2024 documentary, she spoke with clear-eyed respect for the risks that come with that life.
"In the mountains you are vulnerable. The mountains decide and you have to listen to them, you have to respect them. Experience plays an important role, but I’m still at the beginning of the process."
Those lines now read as a sober account of the rules she lived by. High-consequence terrain does not grade on effort or intention. It rewards preparation and punishes small mistakes with final results.
Willmann was still early in a career built on hard mountains, long approaches, and freeride competition. The couple was exploring Patagonia together when the snow broke. One of them walked out. One did not.
Rescuers did their job under tough conditions and still could not change the outcome once the burial depth and time worked against them. The investigation will sort through what can be known about the slide, the gear, and the decisions on the hill that day.
Nature does not negotiate. The skiers who last longest in places like Cerro Crestón are the ones who treat that fact as non-negotiable too.
