A Keble student has died of hypothermia on a skiing holiday after becoming lost trying to get back to his chalet.
Jonathan Hard, 21, who was studying PPE, left a late-night party without an outdoor coat and took the wrong direction back to the chalet where he was staying.
The alarm was raised the next morning after he was missed at breakfast. He was still alive when found, but died shortly after from hypothermia.Jonathan was on a ski trip organised by students at Keble, at St Sorlin d’Arves in France. He had been joined by about 100 other students.
Jonathan’s father, David, told The Times that Jonathan had been at a “Rubik’s cube party”, where guests came dressed in six different colours and swapped clothes until by the end of the night they were dressed in a single colour.“[The party] came to an end at about 1am. [Jonathan] went back to the chalet and didn’t pick up his coat. He had obviously had a fair bit to drink, but he’s done it before. He didn’t have to be terribly drunk to do that. But he headed back in the wrong direction.“I’ve no idea what he was wearing. Knowing Jon, just a sweatshirt. He collapsed and cold overcame him,” he said.The warden of Keble College, Dame Averil Cameron, said, “Everyone in the college is shocked and totally stunned by Jon’s death. He was an intelligent and friendly student who was hoping to study in the US after obtaining his degree. “Our thoughts are with his family and his friends, to whom we extend our heartfelt sympathy.”
