Mountain Guide Guilty of Manslaughter After Avalanche Deaths
15th August 2026
Last modified on August 19th, 2026
Two teenagers died while ski touring in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. A tour leader was acquitted.
The accident happened in Meiringen in 2023.
Archie Harvey from the UK and Emily Franciose from the USA were part of a boarding school’s ski touring group.
The 18-year-old students came from the Ecole d’Humanité school in Hasliberg in the canton of Bern.
There was a mountain guide, Lukas Iten, in charge of the group and a school tour leader, Guido Bieri.
Both were highly experienced in their fields.
The prosecution accused Lukas Iten of choosing a route that was too steep and dangerous for a descent.
Guido Bieri was alleged not to have intervened, despite having a say in the matter.
On the day of the accident the avalanche danger was at Level Two, moderate, with a specific warning issued regarding avalanches in weak, old snow.
The first descent went without incident.
During the second descent an avalanche was triggered and swept the two teenagers over a cliff several hundred meters high.
Archie Harvey was found about an hour and 30 minutes later, buried under 2m of snow.
The body of Emily Franciose was found three months later.
We reported on the accident and the trial earlier on PlanetSKI:
- Investigations as two 18 year old students die in avalanche in Switzerland
- Two ski tour guides on trail after fatal avalanche
The guide has been held responsible and was convicted of multiple counts of manslaughter through negligence.
He was handed a suspended fine of CHF13,500 (£12,265) by the Oberland Regional Court in Thun.
The co-leader of the tour was acquitted.
“Nobody wanted this,” the prosecutor said in his closing argument.
“But the defendants made a fateful decision.”
The prosecution said the second descent was through steep terrain and was a dangerous misjudgement.
It had sought a conviction for manslaughter and suspended fines.
The mountain guide argued that he had seen no significant difference from the first safe descent and had not noticed any signs of danger at the scene.
The defence lawyers for the mountain guide and the co-leader argued that there is no such thing as zero risk.
They rejected the allegation that their clients had violated their duty of care.
Rather, they had acted to the best of their knowledge and belief.
All in the group were equipped with avalanche transceivers, probes and shovels.
Avalanche accident Image c/o Bern Cantonal Police.
The mountain guide reiterated in court that he had prepared thoroughly for the trip.
Based on the information available to him, “everything was in order.”
He was aware of the problem with old snow, but did not consider it a safety risk on the chosen route.
An expert report was presented to the court.
The author of the expert report was a mountain guide himself.
“It’s always a fine line,” he said in court.
On the one hand, he explained, you want to offer guests something special and make for a “cool tour.”
On the other hand, he added, you must always remember that, ultimately, you’re being paid to bring people back safely.
The parents of the American teenager came to Switzerland for the trial.
Her father spoke in court of “the worst nightmare imaginable.”
The mother said through tears that she had been devastated since the death of her only child.
She held up a large portrait of her daughter and stood with it for a while in front of the two defendants.
The father said that he did not want to blame anyone.
He simply wanted to find out the truth and understand how and why the accident could have happened.
The parents of the British man, who was also killed, did not attend the court hearing.
The case has been watched closely by Switzerland’s mountain-guiding profession.
Criminal prosecutions of mountain guides after accidents are rare and the implications could be significant.
Both sides have 10-days to lodge an appeal.
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