After a very warm start to the month with temperatures reaching around 20C in the valleys a weather front passed over the north of the Alps, Jura and Vosges leaving around 30cm of fresh snow.
Despite the very warm period it is still possible to ski to quite a low altitude, especially on northerly slopes. The return of colder weather (0C isotherm around 2000 meters in the Alps, 2500 meters in the Pyrénées) has stabilised the humid snow pack with little natural avalanche activity. Some wet snow avalanches have been observed on sunny expositions. Off piste users should still take care towards ridge lines and cols exposed to strong winds. The avalanche risk through most of the mountain ranges is 2 on a risk of 5 dropping to 1 in some places.
Posted by
davidof on Friday, 13 February, 2004 at 04:06 PM
We skied at Porte-Puymorens in the Pyrénées on the Saturday. Plenty of snow on piste higher up but a mixture of ice, hard snow and crust off piste. On Sunday we climbed the 2691m Cap de la Cometa del Forn just over the border in Andorra. The south facing slopes gave us spring skiing conditions. The snow in Andorra looked great but lower resorts on the French side of the border need more.
The snow level is around 1800 meters on southern slopes and 1500 meters on northern slopes. There is some powder to be found on shaded slopes, but also a lot of wind crust.
Posted by
davidof on Monday, 16 February, 2004 at 02:24 PM
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