Hey folks,

Hows the snow looking, ive been watching all the webcams looking forward to the resorts kicking off, wheres got the huge dumps in france.

Davie

This is yesterday at around 1800 meters in the Belledonne range

About 50cm of snow at this altitude. It is going to rain to quite high levels today. The temperature went up from -3C last night at 17h00 to to +6C now. This is at 1700 meters. So you can figure 0.6C per 100 m giving a zero isotherm of 2700m and a snow/rain level at around 2400 m. This may not be a bad thing given the 2 fatal avalanche incidents (one this morning) this season as it should, in the medium term, help stabilize the snow that is currently on the ground, at least below 2500m and it could provide a good base for future snowfall. Expect conditions to be pretty sketchy higher up though and take care at all altitudes this weekend.

Relatively good snow down to the Mont-Dore resort but fairly low visibility in Sancy (Auvergne, Massif Central) for 11 Nov

Alas it’s almost all gone now with warm temperatures and rain… It seems winter should come back next week anyway!

The foehn came over the weekend, it was impressively warm yesterday. What snow that hadn’t been washed away by the rain was blasted by the wind. So we have patchy bits of snow on sheltered north faces from around 2000 meters and not much on south faces below 2300m. So back to sq. one. It is scheduled to snow again today down to 1200 m, the snow is supposed to be heavy but it has only just got down to 2C at 1800m (temperature started to drop at 11am) so expect quite a bit of rain too at lower altitudes. I think we will need more snow at lower altitudes to ski but the high road passes could be feasible but watch out for the avalanche risk with all this fresh snow.

I’ve been out doing a couple of small tours over the last couple of days. First off, the Belledonne to l’Orionde.

Here’s looking over towards les 7 Laux:

Good conditions. Skiable snow down to 1150m but you only begin to find good conditions from around 1300m. There was about 60cm of snow at the summit. Quite hard making tracks over 900 meters of climbing. The west face of the Orionde had a lot of snow and it was quite cohesive in places although no sign of any instability. On the summit the snow had been windblown and had a slight crust.

Conditions in the forest were great.

Today I wanted to head up to the old favourite of the Col du Coq but there was too much snow on the road after 1200m so I took a look at the pistes of St Hilaire du Touvet.

They had started pisting for opening

but managed to get some great turns in before the piste bashers arrived

Hmmm loverly fresh powder, guess this is what they call front country

Sancy got fresh snow in the last days. Rather unstable. 1 m accumulations on grass or hard snow, windslabs formed by S to W winds. Large avalanche in Val de Courre from the Col to Tour Carrée and smaller broken slabs at different places. NNW to E slopes and steeps not advisable…

Here’s a look at snowfall in the Belledonne range on a n/e slope at 2300m

Red is this year. blue the snowy 2005/6 winter, green 2006/7 and yellow 2007/8. Winter does indeed seem to be around 3 weeks early this year, as the press are saying. More snow on the way over the next 48 hours with possibly a monster dump on Tuesday although the snowlevel could be some way above 1000m.

...And naturally a few ski-tourers triggered avalanches today as the weather was fine and many people went to unadvisable places. One was buried on Envers du Redon and lucky other people were close - and that’s a party who was advised by the local guide not to ski down that way!

A pretty scary start of the season in terms of people’s behaviour in front of obvious risk - windslabs went down by themselves in a number of visible places…

Did you see this in la Montagne (Google Translation)

A skier was swept 600 meters by an avalanche at 13 hours in the Massif du Sancy (Puy de Dome).

Sancy stations have not yet opened their doors. But fans of skiing, including backcountry skiing or off-piste enthusiasts were already on the slopes this weekend.

Athletes to whom the military mountain police platoon of Le Mont-Dore send a message of caution. The wind made the snowpack very unstable, 40 cm of snow fell at 1,500 meters above sea level.

Yesterday, about 13 hours, a slab of about 150 meters wide and 600 meters long, detached from the north-east face of the Puy de Sancy.

While conducting a “check” in this sector, with the dog handler from Mont-Dore, following the discovery of ski tracks, the gendarmes of PGM have received an alert for a skier in difficulty, at 14 h 15. A ski tourer, 36, originally from Saint-Genes-Champanelle, had been swept away by a snow slab on the north western side of the Puy Redon, just below the ridgeline. She was dragged over 600 yards in front of her companion, who was skiing with her.

Only her head was emerging from the debris when she was found. Shocked by mild hypothermia, and pain in the pelvis, she was transported to University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand.

Saturday afternoon, they have also intervened to rescue another hiker on skis. This Montdorienne 24, was trapped by a blizzard while trying to reach the resort of Super Besse.

Lost, she dug a hole in the snow while waiting for rescue. Suffering from mild hypothermia, she was escorted by the PGM Station Mont-Dore.

The conditions should not improve in the coming days. Again, a single watchword for the police: beware!

http://www.lamontagne.fr/editions_locales/issoire/la_skieuse_chute_sur_600_m_apres_le_decrochage_d_une_plaque_de_neige@CARGNjFdJSsBFxMABhs-.html