WEDS PM: Former Greenhead College student dies on French skiing trip

Jan 14 2009 By Andrew Jackson

A FORMER Greenhead College student has died while on a skiing holiday in the French Alps.

Rachel Ward, 20, who was in the second year of a natural sciences degree at Durham University, was found dead in the upmarket resort of Val d’Isere early on Tuesday.

She froze to death after apparently slipping on ice and falling into the icy Isere River, local media reported.

Durham University paid tribute today to a "talented and popular" student who was both academically gifted and active in extra-curricular activities.

Miss Ward, who lived in Halifax during her time at Greenhead,  went out with friends on Monday night but set out to return to her apartment alone, the Dauphine Libere newspaper reported.

At about 1.15am yesterday she sent a text message to a friend, saying she was lost.

One theory is that she decided to cross the river to take a short cut but fell in and could not get out.

A man on his way to work found her body.

Miss Ward was on a student-organised ski and snowboarding holiday with travel operator On the Piste, Durham University said.

A member of Durham’s Collingwood College, she played for the university’s hockey team and was also its treasurer.