A psychologist from Italy lost his life when he and a friend were caught in an avalanche near Mont Blanc.
The victim, identified as 52-year-old Marco Neppi Modona, died after he was buried by snow at an altitude of 2,500 metres (8,202 feet).
He was reportedly climbing with a friend in the Arp area of the Val Veny valley on the Mont Blanc massif, near Courmayeur, when the incident happened on Sunday, 18th December.
Marco, a married father of two, was an associate professor of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Turin since 2001.

He was the son of distinguished Italian jurist and former Italian Constitutional Court judge Guido Neppi Modona, 84.
Marco’s brother, Matteo, had died in a tragic motorcycle accident at the age of 32 in Moncalieri, Italy, in April 2008.
Aosta Valley mountain rescue crews rushed to locate Marco after his friend, who was reportedly unharmed, alerted them to the incident at around midday.
However, when they finally located him, he had already passed away from his injuries.

They retrieved his body and handed it to the relevant officials in Courmayeur for formal recognition procedures.