A British snowboarder has died in the Swiss Alps despite a rescue operation that was played out on Twitter.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed on last night that Rob Williams, 29, an entrepreneur from Liverpool, died after falling 60ft into a ravine in the Swiss Alps near Verbier.

Mr Williams went missing on Monday with Jason Tavaria, 29, who survived. The pair had become separated from their group, which included Michelle Dewberry, winner of the second series of The Apprentice.

Ms Dewberry and her group appealed to friends to help rescue the missing skiers by asking for information using Twitter, which lets users share information using mobile phones and computers.

She wrote: “2 of our ski party been missing since 4pm. Conditions terrible. 1 guy found but trapped. 20 man team searching for other.”

Another friend, Alex Hoye, updated Twitter in a series of messages later that evening, appealing to the online community for Williams’s contact details.

In another update he said: “Rob’s number rec’d [received] via Twitter; Jason now found using GPS/Google maps & phone... still working on finding Rob.”

Swiss police said Mr Williams’s body was discovered in a stream at the foot of a cliff near the resort, in the Valais region.

Mike Butcher, a website editor who is friends with the group, described his friends’ shock on the social networking site. “I just got off the phone to one member of the trip. They said: ‘Everyone literally said they’d just had the best time on the trip. And then it went straight to the opposite. We are all in shock.'"

Mr Williams and Mr Tavaria were school friends in St Albans, Hertfordshire, before studying in Liverpool. They combined their student loans to found retailer Dolphin Music, an online music equipment retailer. It later expanded to include three high street shops in Liverpool, Gateshead and Huddersfield.

Their success was highlighted by the Make Your Mark campaign, a collaboration between British business organisations to encourage enterprise. Last year, their company’s sales topped £10m and they employed 60 staff.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We can confirm the death of a British national in Verbier.”