We had quite a lot of precipitation over the last week with snow falling down to 1600m. However last night the temperatures were positive to 3000m with rain to 2600m. We lost about another 10cm of snow cover at 1600 (not that there was much to lose). It is very warm this morning, 9C at Chamrousse at 1700m and we are expecting June like temperatures for the weekend with maybe records broken. That will be the third month this year of record breaking temperatures.

All that rain keeping me awake for nothing. I think “last rainfall” should be added to “last snowfall” on the basis of this winter. Looking at the PDS report it says 8cm 2 days ago, but I know that it’s all probably been washed away.

Some you win, some you loose, next winter is going to be EPIC, you heard it here first.

Henry is reporting an avalanche yesterday morning on the Bec Charvet

http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com/accident-face-du-charvet-e-face-1145-val-disère-april-1

There was also an avalanche on the Solaise

http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com/accident-face-du-charvet-e-face-1145-val-disère-april-1

an off duty pisteur was buried but suffered shock only.

adie - 01 April 2011 03:48 PM

Some you win, some you loose, next winter is going to be EPIC, you heard it here first.

Yes best to forget about 2011 despite some good days.

Yesterday I was resort skiing with my son at the Collet d’Allevard. Very variable going… by variable I mean a mix of mud, rocks, tree roots and slush. But good in parts. Amazed they made it through really. Snow pack reports over the past few days are of a poor to non-existant refreeze despite clear skies. It was 13 degrees at 1800m yesterday at 15h00 (and we had 5C at 3100 in the Ecrins which must give a zero iso above 4000m) It is raining in the Northern Alps today with rain up to 2200 meters.

There was an avalanche in the vallon d’Avérole near to Bessans in the Haute Maurienne yesterday. A group of 8 with 4 people actually involved in the slide. One skier suffered broken ribs. A snowboarder was buried under 150cm of snow skiing off piste close to the Lièvre run. The snow was 4 meters deep in places. He was found by piste patrollers using their avalanche dog. A ski tourer suffered a crevasse fall on the glacier de la Martin between Tignes and Villaroger. The man was stuck for 90 minutes before the rescue services could free him. He suffered shoulder injuries and hypothermia. The rescue operation was complicated by avalanches in the sector.

Finally on Saturday a ski tourer, aged in his 70s fell 800 meters from the pic des Trois Evêchés, close to Briancon. The man was apparently putting his skis on at 3300 meters altitude when he skied backwards off the summit over a cliff face. He did not survive the fall.

Records broken on Saturday.

It was 27°C at Grenoble, 25.7°C at Bourg St Maurice at 865 meters and in Tarbes at 360m in the Pyrenees. The Tarbes figure is a record for the first 10 days of April and I bet the BsM figure is too. It was 29°C at Biarritz on Friday, another record. So after Jan and Feb another record breaking month for France.

Here is a look at snowdepths this year compared to previous season.

I think we can say that the season is over on east facing slopes at 1600m, about a couple of weeks earlier than 2007

At both altitudes we see the season got off to an early start with skiable snow falling from mid November. However after the November dumps the season has pretty much flatlined. At lower altitudes the December snowfall fell as rain. I guess the one positive thing in comparison with 2007 is that at least there was snow on the ground throughout the season, although this was not the case below 1500m.

April 2011
Exceptionally hot and dry. Sunny weather and summer temperatures.

May 2011
Cooler as a result of northerly airflows bringing dry air often but with storms in the late afternoon.

June 2011
Continuation of the northerly airflow: will be sunny, warm but not too warm, a few thunderstorms late in the day will bring some rain.

July 2011
Continuation of the north to northwest airflow. At this time of year, it will be hot but rains will be frequent bringing a fresh atmosphere with a lot of rain.

August 2011
Continuation of a cool summer with rain and a lot of storms.

September 2011
Westerlies: the weather is mild but the Atlantic weather systems will bring heavy rains interspersed with some nice days.

October 2011
Dry and mild

http://www.tvmountain.com/article/m-t-o-6-mois/8291-meteo-6-mois-bulletin-du-01042011.html

Not too much to report at the moment. The “melt” continues, we are losing around 50cm of snowpack per week at 2300 meters (excluding very sheltered north faces). I’ve not actually been out due to a bad cold.

There has been some serious avalanche activity in the afternoons. A skier was almost caught by a large avalanche in the vallon de Bonnepierre in the Ecrins. Due to route finding problems they were descending steep, south facing slopes at 17h30! The skier literally escaped by the skin of his teeth as one ski was dragged away in the slide.

see: http://www.camptocamp.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=194444&action=new

A group of three ski tourers were caught by a slide above Champagny-en-Vanoise around midday. They were skiing the Grand Bec at 2500m altitude in the plan des Gouilles sector when one of the skiers was carries 400 meters. Luckily he remained on the surface of the slide but suffered a broken leg.

Henry Schniewind also witnessed this monster in l’espace Killy.

http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com/enorme

https://picasaweb.google.com/jean.ribart/2011AvrilVal#5593927852909731778

The spring avalanche activity seems more marked this year. I have two ideas. The April temperatures have been unusually hot, more like June. We have not had the slow build up and purging of slopes. Also the snowpack was absolutely rotten from the long anticyclone. This was then overloaded in some places in March which caused the peak in slab avalanches but the rest of the snow is going to need some substantial freeze0-thaw to turn into stable spring (neve) type snow. Even though 10C overnight temperatures can produce a refreeze if the sky is clear (snow is a black box and can radiate heat even if the air temperature is positive) the refreeze is superficial, confined to the top 5cm of the snowpack. You need to get your tours in early and be back down well before noon if you want to ski spring snow and not put yourself at risk.

Hopefully the return to cooler, unsettled weather will help the stabilization process and bring a bit of fresh above 2000m… there is not much left below that altitude.

Noticeably colder today with a “bise”. Tomorrow will turn overcast with clouds at 1500m (not sure if it will be clear higher up). There will a little snow above 1500m, particularly further south. A second weather system will traverse the French Alps on Friday with a more sustained snowfall from 1100m. Winter is here!

Weekend sunny but cold but the north wind will drop.

An update on the ski touring conditions. The refreeze has really improved since the end of the “april heatwave”. We have had a week of below freezing temperatures above 2000m although it was warmer today at altitude. The result is that N/W to W slopes are not tranforming during the day and can be very very icy. There was an accident in the Belledonne where a skier blew his first turn and slide 150m down a 35 degree slope suffering back injuries.

On South facing slopes you can find spring snow from 10am and by midday it is getting pretty soft. East and NE slopes can be skiable from earlier as the sun strikes them from 7.30 -> 8am.

Snowline in the Northern French alps is around 1600-1700 meters on shaded slopes. 2300 meters and even higher on south facing slopes.

Still a fairly rapid thaw, at 2300m in the Belledonne we have lost 40cm this week. Snowpack is now less than a meter at this altitude. Bar a few sheltered or high altitude spots the ski touring season is drawing to a rapid close.

It snowed a bit on Friday night, there was 10cm of fresh above 2100-2300 meters on Saturday morning. However it rained the same evening to 2500m undoing most of the good work.

We are approaching a drought situation in the Rhone-Alpes and the mountain reservoirs are worryingly empty with little snow to top them up this spring.

A couple of incidents. Olivier Pilon, a prominent and much loved member of the local Dauphine Ski Alpinism club was killed by a cornice fall on the 20th April. He was unroped, with two friends at 3000m. on the Aiguille des Glaciers route.

There was a small avalanche at 14h30 on the Mont Blanc du Tacul on Saturday which hit 3 ski tourers. Able to free themseleves one suffered knee injuries and had to be taken to hospital by the PGHM. Maybe the avalanche was linked to the fresh snow? The men were on the Mont Blanc normal route which, according to the Cosmisques guardian, is very dangerous due to the size of the rimaye (7m. in places) which is forcing climbers on a big detour under seracs.

Voila voila, no doubt Davidof will give us some more updates when he returns, although there will probably be no snow left by then.

April has finished as the second hottest since 1900 after 2007 with temperatures +4C more than the long term average. It was also exceptionally dry. Drought orders are already in force in some areas particuarly the West of France.

The situation in the Alpes was actually worse. In Bourg St Maurice/les Arcs records were broken on the 9th of April when temperatures hit 28.6C, the hottest start of April since the 2nd World War. The town, situated in the heart of the French Alps at 870 meters, also saw 255 hours of sunshine, way above the average of 165 hours, and breaking the 2007 record of 254 hours.

redac - 04 May 2011 08:40 PM

April has finished as the second hottest since 1900 after 2007 with temperatures +4C more than the long term average. It was also exceptionally dry. Drought orders are already in force in some areas particuarly the West of France.

It’s amazingly dry, when it rained all day yesterday it seemed really unusual. It’s become so continually dry that it’s hardly a factor planning trekking, you just assume it’s going to be dry and sunny. I was wearing a goretex jacket and couldn’t recall the last time I’d had it on.

Back to normal today, bbq outside

I don’t think it has really rained properly in our neck of the mountains since December. We’ve had light rain but not water table replenishing stuff.

View of Val Thorens from the Col de Rosael

Spent the weekend skiing in Val Thorens with Junior. We were supposed to go last week but I was not well enough. The Tarentaise/Vanoise is even drier than the Belledonne. I reckon that without artificial snow you couldn’t ski below 2400 meters whereas in the Belledonne you can still find some skiable snow down to 1800m on north faces.

Off piste there was not much of a refreeze on north faces, it was 5C on Saturday night with some rain. The snow softened up very quickly and was rapidly unskiable. South faces were somewhat better as the snow has had more of a freeze / thaw cycle and is pretty dense… where you can find snow that is. There is not much below 2700m except at the bottom of some more sheltered valleys.

Watch out for rivers with only poor snow cover, you could be taking an early bath, or worse.

The slopes of the West Face of the Aiguille du Peclet look nice and I heard of powder on the Polset/Gebroulaz.