French Skier Juliette Willmann Dies in Avalanche Near El Chaltén

Juliette Willmann, a 29-year-old French freeride skier, died in an avalanche on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, on Cerro Crestón, a mountain near El Chaltén, Argentina—the town known for climbing, backcountry skiing, and mountaineering. 

Willmann was skiing with her husband, Pierre-Idris Mehdi, 30, when an avalanche hit the couple, dragging them about 1,300 feet down the slope in the Lago del Desierto area, according to an initial report from the Government of Santa Cruz. 

The report said that, at around 12:30 p.m., a guide issued a notice warning of an avalanche involving two people. A rescue team that included several organizations ventured into the mountains soon afterward. The team left with a stretcher, a defibrillator, oxygen, and first aid. The walking route to the site of the avalanche can take between four and five hours, the report said.

The first to arrive at the scene were other skiers who found Willmann buried about five feet deep with no vital signs. With help from a doctor who provided assistance via radio, CPR was performed. 

According to the report, rescuers reached the scene just before 5 p.m. and verified Willmann’s death. Mehdi was found conscious. He had no obvious injuries and remains under medical care, the Ministry said on Tuesday.

The accident is under investigation.

“The circumstances of the incident and the possible injuries that caused the death of the woman must be established through the corresponding expert opinion,” the report, which was translated from Spanish, said. 

Before the accident, Mehdi and Willmann shared Instagram posts from their time skiing in South America. One adventure saw them climb and ski Cerro Madsen, another summit near El Chaltén.

“We feel so lucky to be here, in the mountains of Patagonia, exploring this amazing place,” Willmann wrote in a recent post. “This trip in South America keeps blowing our minds.”

Willmann was born in Marseille and raised in southern France. From a family of skiers, she started her career as an alpine racer but switched to freeride at 19, competing in the qualifiers.

She qualified for the Freeride World Tour in 2019 and stayed on the circuit until 2022. Her movie, RISE, documented her pivot away from competitions to start skiing steep, big-mountain lines. Willmann eventually moved to the steep skiing hotspot of Chamonix, France. 

Tributes to the talented skier have begun to appear on social media, including one from Aymar Navarro, a Spanish steep skier and former Freeride World Tour competitor. 

“A hard blow to assimilate,” he wrote. “Hard to find words between the rage, helplessness and the emptiness you’ve left.”

Another professional skier, Jackie Paaso, said in a post that Willmann was “one of my absolute favorites from my time on the FWT.” Paaso said Willmann reminded her “a bit of myself before becoming a mom.”

“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,” Paaso wrote. “My heart is completely broken and devastated for Pierre and this truly unthinkable loss.”

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