Drink binge probe after Varsity ski reveller dies
POLICE were last night piecing together the final hours of a British student who died on the first night of a university ski trip to the Alps.
Oxford history undergraduate Matt Smith, 22, was found unconscious in an apartment in the upmarket resort of Val Thorens, France, on Sunday.
He died at the scene and it is believed he suffered a cardiac arrest.
Brilliant sportsman Matt was among more than 3,000 Oxford and Cambridge students taking part in the resort’s annual Varsity trip.
They arrived in the resort – Europe’s highest at 7,545ft – on Saturday afternoon after a 770-mile coach journey.
Local police said many started drinking immediately. The Varsity ski trip is notorious for heavy drinking and students have been criticised in recent years over their antics both on and off the slopes.
Former public schoolboy Matt is believed to have been at a drinks party until the early hours.
Friends found him unresponsive next morning and immediately called police. Two medics arrived within 15 minutes but could not revive him.
An autopsy and toxicology tests are planned for today in the French city of Grenoble.
Matt was in his third year at St John’s College. An online profile described him as a qualified snowboard instructor, secretary of Oxford’s ski and snowboard club, a first XV rugby player and a member of his college’s rowing eight.
He had been dating fellow student Ellie Bagshaw for a year and recently completed a threemonth internship as a junior press officer at Sotheby’s in London.
His devastated parents Howard, 49, and Karen, 48, were believed to be in the ski resort last night.
Howard, a City analyst, said: “We are very shocked but we are so proud of Matt and thankful for the years we had with him.
“We know he was with his friends and in the snow, in the mountains doing what he loved, when he died, so that is a comfort to us now.
“We don’t know at the moment what caused his death.”
Matt’s younger brother Harry, 20, posted a picture on Facebook of the pair on a snow-covered mountain peak and wrote: “Rest well above the clouds.”
The Varsity trips began in 1922 and the event is billed as the biggest ski party in the world.