Two dead in French snow storms Peasant Lore Dog days for 2007 ski touring Ropes removed from Aiguille du Midi

Tuesday, 29 May, 2007

Two dead in French snow storms

The return to winter has had fatal consequences for two hikers on the island of Corsica last night. The walkers were in separate groups and were trapped when a winter storm broke over the island bringing sub-zero temperatures and limited visibility. One person plucked to safety by the mountain police today described how he had sheltered behind a rock as wind speeds reached 200 km/h driving snow into deep drifts. Both victims were residents of the French mainland.

Posted by davidof at 08:37 PM
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Monday, 14 May, 2007

Peasant Lore

Followers of PisteHors will know we are big fans of peasant lore. Consulting the Almanac Savoyard gives the following dictum…

Tels Quatre-Temps, Telles saisons.
Si les Quatre-Temps amènent le mauvais temps, il y en aura pour longtemps.

The Quatre-temps are four groups of three days (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday). For the spring they follow the Carême feast days, for the summer Pentecost, autumn the 14 of September and winter, the 13th of December. Anyone who followed the rule this year would have known that ski season would be warm and dry.

snow 14 May 2007
PisteHors webcam this afternoon

Posted by davidof at 04:42 PM
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Tuesday, 01 May, 2007

Ropes removed from Aiguille du Midi

The ropes and other safety equipment on the Aiguille du Midi ridge have been removed. The ridge gives access to the Vallee Blanche off piste as well as many other routes in the Mont-Blanc range such as the 3 Mont Blancs route to the summit of Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest summit.

vallee blanche
Photo: Tom Rune