The death of a seven-year-old boy who plunged 160ft from a mountain in the French Alps during a family holiday was a 'tragic accident', a coroner has ruled.
Carwyn Scott-Howell, from Brecon, mid Wales, became separated from his his mum and siblings Gerwyn, 18, and Antonia, nine, before he was found on a mountain ledge by a search and rescue helicopter.
An inquest heard the seven-year-old was a competent skier but had gone off-piste before taking his skis off and sliding down a slope over the edge of a cliff.
Wales Online reports mum Ceri told the inquest she was skiing down a blue run when Antonia had a problem with her ski.
Mrs Scott-Howell said she stopped to help her daughter and told Carwyn to wait, which he did.
"I told him to wait where he was. I shouted out. He did hear me."
"He did stop and I turned to his sister. When I looked back he had gone.
"I assumed he would stay at the bottom of the run."
Mrs Scott-Howell blamed a lack of signage on the slope for the tragedy.
"He had skied straight down to the right of the slope. There was no signage," she said.
When there was no sign of him at the end of the run she alerted lift attendants and a search was mounted.
Pathologist Geraint Evans told an earlier hearing that Carwyn's injuries were consistent with a fall from a big height and that they were "sufficient to account for his death".
Having heard the evidence, Gwent Coroner David Bowen today recorded a verdict of accidental death.
The family were winter sports enthusiasts and went on at least two ski holidays a year.
In the aftermath his death Carwyn was described by parents Ceri and Rhys as a daring, outgoing and determined little boy.
In a statement, they said: "His handsome smile lit up any room and made life full of laughter with never a dull moment. Seven years is too short a time to be an angel in the sky.
"Carwyn was a very competent skier and snowboarder who had started skiing at the age of three and spent several weeks each year skiing. We had spent the most happy ski holiday together in the French ski resort of Flaine."