With 50 cm of fresh snow since Friday coupled with strong winds and another 50cm expected the Southern Alps departments of Alpes Maritimes and the Var have been put on an Orange Alert with other departments at Yellow. Not before time according to local politicians. The prefecture has warned against ski touring and off piste skiing.
The avalanche risk is High (4/5) across the entire Southern Alps mountain range. On Friday afternoon an off-piste skier was killed by an avalanche in the ski resort of Pra Loup. The man, aged in his fifties, was local to the valley. The man was buried by a slide measuring 10x30 meters. The ski resort of Puy-Saint-Vincent also suffered power outage which stopped the ski lifts from running for four hours.
Meteo France warns that strong southerly winds continues to create windslab. All slope aspects are unstable and the fresh snow on Saturday will aggravate the situation with the risk of large natural avalanches that could cross roads and skier triggered avalanches likely. The area behind Nice and Menton has already been hit by numerous landslides.