February finished with a brilliant day of spring touring weather. We skied the Grande Lance de Domene and Grand Colon, 2000 meters + over a couple of classic routes in the Belledonne mountains close to Grenoble. The skis almost climbed themselves.

March started with a grey day with some rain at altitude. Snow is melting fast at lower elevations. At 1000m we were skiing on something like salt in texture with water everywhere. Forecast is for more snow and colder temperatures. However the weather is a reminder to start earlier - there is still a lot of snow to purge on steeper slopes and with the arrival of spring it is time to remember those ski crampons / crampons in the ruck sack. We saw a few people having difficulties on one or two passages.

The most notable thing is how little snow there is on some routes. The strong winds we’ve experienced this winter have left some passages completely bare, notably the east side of the Grand Colon yesterday but also many summits and ridges. A real mixed bag with good conditions in sheltered valleys.

Hesitating between spring and winter from one day to the other.

Soft spring snow on Saturday, fast melting on South slopes, collapsing icefalls…

Refrozen to ice on Sunday…

Now it seems that 30 to 50 cm of fresh snow are falling - but with relatively strong winds.

We’ve had 60-70cm in the North Chablais over the last 48hrs(so North of Morzine), we were a bit overwelmed by the depth. Take a look at the video to get an idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az8IIbhXOP8

Great video.
Music worked so well that I had to go look at the license plate on the car to convince myself it was France (and not Colorado).

Ken

Too much snow, at least the big man has the momentum to carry him through the snow. I like the contract with Eric’s pictures of spring snow condtions.

It is snowing again now. Zero isotherm was up around 3000 meters on Sunday but there has been 40cm of fresh and it is nippy. Snowline around 350 meters although it rained at 1000m overnight.

I’ve updated the list of backcountry incidents I know about:

http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Avalanches/Accident-Statistics

KenR from USA - 09 March 2009 12:50 PM

Great video.
Music worked so well that I had to go look at the license plate on the car to convince myself it was France (and not Colorado). Ken

How about sampling this?

http://www.yadugaz.com/

Sounds a bit like an Austrian Pinky and Perky.

Well spotted, I have that in my collection too (the Led Zep). I was just marvelling at the skiing and the perfect conditions in the vid- then I read the cast list! PS - I’ll leave the singing Marmots to their own devices.

endlessride - 10 March 2009 08:19 AM

I was just marvelling at the skiing ... in the vid- then I read the cast list!

Yes it occurred to me that it’s actually a rather helpful video for learning technique for steep skiing.

My observation: Seems like some pretty successful skiers of the steeps now find the venerable “pedal-jump turn” to be dispensable.

Ken

Went out yesterday morning for a quick hike on easy angled terrain up to 1800m, set off and it was still snowing but descended the south facing slopes in the sun. It was 4/5 on the Avy scale so we had shied away from something steeper. As one might imagine - the March sun made things wet very quickly. Went up high (2400m) and North facing (and lift assisted) in Flaine today, was lucky enough to arrive at the Combe de Gers to discover that it had been closed yesterday! Made two lovely powder descents in there before lunch at the Chalets de Gers and a descent to Sixt on the cascade run. Really good ski conditions on the cold slopes despite the Spring conditions on the warm slopes. A couple of pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/endlessride/sets/72157615074727739/

As anyone reading Pistehors will have realized avalanche conditions in the Northern Alps were pretty sketchy last week. Yesterday I was touring to the south of Grenoble close to the defunct ski resort of St Honore… the derelict buildings still disfigure the savage Maythesine mountain range. We started around 7am, climbing a steep west facing slope. Conditions were hard with a good grip but a reminder not to forget ski crampons and probably also crampons and ice axe. As the slope steepened I bailed and climbed the summer path up a rocky ridge leaving Alex and Michel to climb the couloir to near the summit. We skied the same slope later, around 11am and it didn’t seem quite so steep from the top but a fall would have taken you several hundred meters. We then headed for the Tabor where I had started ski touring back in ‘91 or ‘92. Conditions were different today with a fearsome north-westerly. We didn’t hang around but descended the east facing couloir de fontaine de mer, a steep 300 meter east faciing couloir. At 10am the snow varied between springlike and hard.

Today we headed to the north Belledonne to our favourite powder stash of the col de Mouchillon. This gentle slope provided some excellent skiing but we kicked off a slab on a convex rollover that took one of the group some distance. A reminder that conditions could still catch out skiers. The avalanche risk was 1 in the Isere bulletin that covers this part of the mountains but the Savoie bulletin was much more cautious and probably gave a more accurate picture. For reference the slide was on a 30-35 degree north-west pitch which appeared to have been cross loaded. It was triggered on a convex rollover where the snow was thinner.

We noticed a lot of folk still climbing on steep, south facing slopes at midday. We are now getting into spring and starts should be early with the aim of descending any avalanche paths before midday.

Nice spring snow on sun bathed slopes for smooth couloir skiing

This is next to the Dore waterfall this am

Beware, still patches of ice, and some of the North slopes pretty icy…

Powder on the Mouchillon (Belledonne North) yesterday.

Went up to the Hospice at the Col du Grand Saint Bernard on Thursday last week. There was a very strong North wind blowing. We ended up skiing the South slopes but the cold conditions had meant the snow surface did not melt. Very “chattery”. A film can also be seen here http://www.chaletgeorge.com/, here in the Haute Savoie they are forecasting snow down to 800m due tonight and showers on a north wind for the next few days.

endlessride - 23 March 2009 02:45 PM

There was a very strong North wind blowing. We ended up skiing the South slopes but the cold conditions had meant the snow surface did not melt. Very “chattery”.

Yes seemed like a lot of wind when I drove thru the tunnel from Italy into the Maurienne last night. Not surprising that the Savoie avy forecast raised the hazard level to 3 for all the mountain groups.
And a friend showed me photos from a trip down south by Embrun—lots of wind-eroded snow near the ridges and bare spots where the snow had been blown off.

La Feclaz this morning near Chambery had its usual very fun cross-country skiing on its delightfully designed groomed pistes, and I didn’t notice the wind much when the trails went into the trees.

Tomorrow morning we’re hoping for a few hours of sunshine to ski on some sort of non-high-altitude southerly slope in Savoie.

Ken