Sunday saw the second fatal avalanche in the French Massif Central mountain range this winter, a witness to how unstable conditions are this season in France. A 51 year old climber has been killed in the Val d’Enfer above le Mont Dore.

Michel Thenot, aged 50 years and an experienced climber failed to return home. The rescue services were alerted by his wife the PGM (Peloton de Gendarmerie de Montagne) from Murat and le Mont Dore, assisted by 3 avalanche dogs, searched until midnight without finding any trace of the missing climber. Early on Monday afternoon they found the body under 2 meters of snow. It seems that rising temperatures on Sunday (there was a strong Foehn blowing) had contributed to the snow slide. M. Thenot was a photojournalist who had worked in a number of war zones.

This is the current situation wrt to fatal avalanche incidents in France, red line is for this season.

A tragic reminder that wind will create dangerous conditions very quickly.

Sunday morning was tempting with 10cm of fresh snow and weather clearing. Not too cold though, around 0 at the resort which made me choose a first climb leading to both couloirs and traditional slopes and leave options open to see how conditions would unfold.

That was conservative but wise: starting around 10:30 a strong South wind started to blow furiously, more than 100 km/h on the crests. I brought my younger buddy into gentle South slopes and out of the couloirs he was hoping to discover. The change of snow conditions behind any bump and even on South slopes was so fast that he was quickly convinced: windslabs, hard and soft and unstable snow building up by the minute.

We dumped any further plan and finished at noon on the resort for the usual raspberry tart at the summit restaurant and a safe descent on tracks.

We heard about the accident the next day. It was a tragic but sadly foreseeable event. It happened probably around 2 or 3 pm, on North and East couloirs of Val d’Enfer, both collecting snow transported by the wind, on hard older snow, 40 to 45 deg angle. When we were at the restaurant we have seen many alpinists arriving by the couloirs, not even the ridges, obviously without any more worry than the tough windy weather. I guess they have climbing knowledge but don’t realize winter snow conditions are much more trickier than summer.

Skiers were not that worried as well: already in the morning a strong local skier triggered a sizeable windslab down the North facing coulées and was lucky to get back up on his skis after 100m and escape on the side. And more tempted the devil and got by only with fear… I have even seen a skitour report praising the ‘smooth untracked snow’ in the N face.

A tragic demonstration that windslab is the most dangerous thing for both climbers and skiers, who in turn mostly ignore it…

By the way, the local guide François Lesca organize a 2 days training on 10 and 11 April on safety in couloir skiing and snow conditions: http://lescafrancois.over-blog.com/