20cm of snow has fallen overnight in the garden and it is still falling here. The snowplough hasn’t been passed the house yet but we have 3 months supply of wood and enough pasta to feed a refuge of Italians.

The last 3 days we’ve been out and about. On Friday we went up to the Cross Country areas at Chamrousse. The road had snow cover from 1100 meters and a lot of panic as drivers found the limit of their abilities. I’m always amused when some 92 plated loon overtakes me on a blind bend (I always slow down and let them by) only to pootle by them a bit further up the hill in the wife’s Panda.

Anyway viz. zero on Friday. We just went as far as the restuarant on the cross country circuit and came back. A bit of fresh air. Saturday we went to le Collet d’Allevard for downhill skiing with junior. The roads were clear to resort level but had been blocked in the morning after heavy lifting gear had to be brought in to lift a delivery van out of the woods after it had crashed. Junior was not happy to see that the roads had no crash barriers on them with a shear drop just outside his passenger window. The runs were great and it was possible to ski off piste from 1600m, or rather between the pistes. There was about 10cm of fresh on a hard, sometimes uneven, base.

Yesterday I toured the 7 Laux backcountry. Because the Prabert road is closed at 1080 meters these days and the skiable snow only really starts around 1500 m I decided to go to the resort of Prapoutel and use the closed cross country trails to go as far as the Pre de l’Arc and then climb the south-west shoulder of the Jas de Lievres. Hard going as I had to break trail from 1450 m in the fresh snow right to the summit at 2300. It was only from 1650 meters that you could ski without touching stones and rocks and even then you had to chose your route carefully. The south slope was refrozen snow with 15cm - 20cm of fresh which only began to stick to the base from 1900m. Hard going. I tried to make use of the areas that had been depleted by the strong south-westerlies of the previous days to find grip. Although the slope is south facing a number of very shallow valleys run down the face. These had been cross loaded by the wind and I wasn’t very keen to ski back down this route. Instead at the summit I took the Couloir ‘Y’ into the Bedina valley. This couloir is around 200m of 45 degrees. It had powder in the top but had been scoured to hard icy snow lower down with a couple of steps that were not yet filled in. After the second step there was a large accumulation and it must have been here that Ben triggered an avalanche a 3 or 4 of years ago. From here the snow was perfect and I rejoined the pistes of les 7 laux to return to the car.

Saturday, off piste skiing in Les Contamines. 20cms of powder on a frozen base between 1300 and 1800. Above 1800 it was amazing. knee deep, sometimes even thigh deep very light fluffy snow. We didn’t venture too far out, as the viz was pretty bad, and we were triggering small surface slides on steep slopes. But what a delight it was. Even some sun rays in the afternoon, but very cold, which prevented any snow transformation.

The 20cm or so of French on Monday have really started the season. Lets hope it stays quite cold. Pite the foehn stole Christmas for the small ski areas.

The conditions finally feel “right” for the time of year. It’s been very odd so far. Managed a lift assisted trip in the PDS today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNgmp5-0ay4

Some of the strongest language I’ve ever seen on the SLF national report today :

The snow layering is of highly varied structure. In some areas there are faceted, weak layers evident in the snowpack. Interspersed among these, rain crusts are embedded up to altitudes of approximately 2500 m. Closer to the surface are often layers of both old and new snowdrift. Atop the uppermost surface, loosely packed snow has been deposited in many areas. More deeply embedded layers are inadequately bonded to one another in places. The snow layering is not more favourable on south facing slopes than on north facing slopes, particularly along the northern flank of the Alps.

I was out yesterday but at low altitude, the snow was not very consolidated with the base and take care where it has fallen directly on the ground. The avalanche at Orelle that killed a member of a “guided” group was on a S/W face so the SLF’s warnings could also apply to France, the snowpack will probably be just as complicated. I hope to take a closer look tomorrow.

I took a weather window on Thursday to climb to the summit of the Cime de la Jasse. This is a 1450 meter climb from the village of Prabert close to the 7 laux ski resort. I don’t have any photos as my main computer is currently KO with a suspected faulty hard disk.

Snow was pretty good except between 1400-1500m where there were quite a lot of rocks. Otherwise about 20cm of fresh powder on a firm base. I was a bit nervous about the amount of snow and stuck close to existing tracks rather than striking out into the powder fields. The route is popular but there were only a couple of people who summited after me. Some very fit people. I did the 1450m in 3 hours although I backed off a bit as I wanted to be fresh for the descent. Some other groups were 15 minutes ahead. No-one hung around at the summit in the bitter cold.

The only bit of instability was when I came over a small hillock, off the back there was an accumulation which broke away as I skied across it. A hard slab of snow about 25cm thick. Maybe an indication of instabilities elsewhere.... Ise posted some slab avalanches from Switzerland which show the multilayered nature of the snowpack on j2ski

http://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/8/7553.page#65041

he summit of the Jasses is around 2500m, there was a lot of snow higher above this level. Maybe 2 meters on the summits of the Belledonne.

On Tuesday I had 3 hours while Junior was at school so decided to climb to the Plan de la Malade (sick man’s plateau but it colloquially means “a crazy project”, which it was). It starts from 650 meters from the town of Theys (pronounced Tays - it is a Savoyard ‘ys’ which you pronounce) and climbs to 1110 meters. With the current snow conditions and the warm sunshine it seemed like a plan.

The route follows farmland past a series of barns to the hilly summit on the center right. I would grade it… 1.1/E1, as easy as it gets. The main danger is the odd barbed wire fence. From the summit you can see the 7 laux ski area, the Theys valley and the Belledonne mountain range.

and opposite the Grand Rocher ski tour and cross country ski area

Ok you need skiable snow at 650 meters but the great thing about this tour, compared to most low altitude tours around here, zero trees. You ski from one field to another, sometimes crossing the odd farm gate, the field are pretty much rock free and you only need 20-30cm of snow for the route to be practicable. There is pretty much zero avalanche risk but the slopes are steep enough to be skiable in normal conditions.

Saturday we did some piste skiing at the Col de Porte. This is quite a historic ski area as it is the site of one of the first drag lifts in France built by a local carpenter called Rossat in 1934 ahead of Constam in Davos and Pomagalski.

http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Isere-Drome/Col-De-Porte

After Tartiflette at les 3 sommets we skied around most of the afternoon. There isn’t much of a slope on the prairie side but junior was happy with the good snow conditions. It gave me a change to look at the off-piste - crusty.

After heavy overnight rain I decided to take advantage of a weather window to do the classic Pravouta figure of 8 from the Col du Coq. The route climbs to the Bec Charvet by the summer path, skis down a clearing on the north side then reclimbs to the Pravouta. The fresh snow had fallen from 1350 meters, below that it had rained heavily and two slides had crossed the road during the night. The roads were white from 1250 meters needing chains or snow tires. Snow on the summits was good but a strong northerly wind was blowing moving snow to south and west slopes. Skiing down the powder turned heavy and developed a crust lower down. There is basically 10-20cm of fresh on a humid base and it is possible to push a pole in 60cm with a number of crusts offering some resistance. Not the best ski conditions, a day for wide skis. However the scenery was spectacular with the late afternoon winter sun. I didn’t check the bulletin but the risk must have been a good 3.

Speaking to other skiers it sounds like the refreeze crust extends up to 2300m, given the zero isotherm at 2500m over the last couple of days and south wind that is probably normal. Best to aim high or for north facing slopes but watch out for the avalanche risk.

In Sancy snow has stabilized after snowfalls and wind - quite a few windslabs have slid - but of course, ice is also back in many parts of the steep terrain.

Yet, with observation and caution it is possible to find sweet lines to ski, particularly on NE, E and S slopes, sun helping for the latter.

Rochers de l’Hor - E facing, Val de Courre

Val de Courre again, NE

Fontaine Salée, S

We should have a dump of fresh snow in a few days on this stable base, let’s hope it comes without too much wind…

Conditions look great Eric. On Friday I took the morning off work (well apart from repeated phone calls) and did a tour with some friends around the backside of the Grand Sorbier near Chamrousse.

Here our first taste of sunshine after a coldish climb in the shade. Snow on the climb was 10-15cm of powder, a bit of a crust in places

we then tipped into the couloir which had 15cm of fresh powder on a firm base, the top of the couloir is N/E facing and enclosed so holds snow well. We were lucky to make first tracks after the snow on Wednesday

after a couple of hundred meters of vert the couloir opens out into the Vaudaine bowl where we left our tracks

we would have continued skiing down to the RN91 if we’d had time, the snow was excellent

but we had the hard climb back up the neighbouring couloir to the pointe de Vaudaine

the last 100 meters finished on foot in difficult snow. The top of this couloir had a large, hard slab on it, an indication that conditions were not so benign…

as we found out in the little south-west couloir above the lacs Robert before returning to the Chamrousse ski area

The top half of the couloir was slabby, 10cm of hard snow which would break when turning and mobilise quite a lot of snow. We skied one at a time without really letting rip. The zig-zags at the bottom are from some ski tourers who obviously made a U turn in the bottom third of the couloir.

On Saturday I went to Meaudre in the Vercors with the family to see the national dog sledding championships and do some piste skiing with my sun. Great snow conditions, a little hard in the morning and a little cold in the afternoon on the east facing slopes. We stayed in the Sabot de Venus hotel, basic and quite French: http://www.sabotdevenus.com/ but worth looking at if you are staying in the Vercors. Could be a good base for exploring the area. Meaudre is a nice little village with 600m of vertical and some interesting, wide tree lined pistes. Off piste looks a bit limited. Some forest skiing but the trees are quite dense. Regarding kids/beginners, be aware that the blue slope at the top of the 2nd chair lift is a bit steeper than the blues off the bottom chair and might prove a bit too much.

Last ever report of January 2010. As the fiston commented today as we drove up to the Col de Marcieu for an hours skiing “wow the snow in the fields is up to the windows of the car”. It has snowed 50 cm since Thursday in some areas like Tignes. Not mega dumps but a slow build up. In the Belledonne it is more like 40cm.

After a busy week at work in Switzerland I finally got home around 10pm on Saturday night having picked up the Heaven N Hell/Sugar Daddy/Janak monster fat skis from Albertville. I managed to get Espace Montagne to wack some Dynafits on and Luc called and asked if I wanted to do a short tour in the Belledonne on Sunday morning. He has work in the afternoon so it would have to be quick so we headed up to Prabert with a view to looking at the conditions and maybe tackling the Pas de la Coche. It was -10C at 1000meters so once we got started we didn’t want to stop and we decided to take the Sun option and head for the Jasse which we duly reached about 11.30am after 3 hours climbing and 1400 meters of vert. I was surprised at the progess with my fat skis and a skin problem on the last 250 meters - they decided to not stick due to the cold. Conditions were 20-30cm of pow on a firm and stable base to 2000 meters, we had some doubts about the base above this level, it seemed very “hollow” in places. The climb up took a very sensible route taking advantage of the terrain. Snow at the summit (-20C someone told us) was windblown.

On the way down Luc asked why I was not doing larger freeride turns, so, to keep him happy you can see I lengthened my turn radius in this photo (our tracks are to the right).

Luc also found the conditions to his liking

Lots of wind transport and we heard of an avalanche on a nearby east facing slope (just over the Pas de la Coche) as well as the avalanche on the east facing slope of the Vercors. There were also some purges. We didn’t see anyone trying any of the obviously heavily loaded slopes or known avalanche spots in our valley though and judging by the trip reports on the French sites people had headed the warnings.

Powder in Sancy as well for the end of January. It started with wind so windslabs have broken or are still hidden, mostly on E to N slopes. But there is plenty of terrain to enjoy the dump!

Stabilization started slow with cold temperatures but should accelerate in Feb

More snow still needed to be able to ski some spots

Some lovely conditions this weekend, this is late afternoon sun down in the Combe de la Pendant