General
Thursday, 22 November, 2007
You dig, or you die!
January 2004, the temperature was - 7 °C and winds were blowing at 100 km/h. Not a place you’d put a dog out let alone a group of trainee soldiers from hot African countries. In the bitter cold of the 2600 Restefond pass in the Southern Alps the order was given: “dig or die”. Two officers perished in the storm and another two were rescued “in-extremis”, one in a hypodermic coma. Three officers were before the military division of the Marseille criminal court this week accused of manslaughter and breaching health and safety regulations.
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Monday, 19 November, 2007
Record breaker for les 7 Laux
After last season’s poor winter with a loss of over 600,000 euros mid-mountain ski resorts have been looking skywards with some trepidation over the last few weeks. The storm which has blasted Austria and Switzerland, dumping around a meter of snow in 24 hours in Davos, finally ground its way south into the French Alpes. Although it had lost some of its early force it still managed to leave 50cm of snow at the top of the pistes of les 7 Laux in the Isere department. Enough to give the piste director the seemingly crazy idea of opening his ski resort in mid-November.
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Tuesday, 13 November, 2007
‘Cham’, The Beach on Ice!
After the success of ‘Boy A’, which has just been made into a film, Jonathan Trigell’s second novel ‘Cham’ is about the quest for powder and forgiveness in Chamonix Mont Blanc.
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Drought worries southern ski resorts
The mayor of Gap in the Hautes-Alpes has introduced water restrictions. From today it will be illegal to water gardens, wash cars or to fill private swimming pools. The mayor has asked everyone in the area to make an effort. The restrictions will be reviewed on the 2nd of December. The region has been suffering from a drought for some time with little rain over the last few months. Many reservoirs are lack water and there are worries that the shortage may have a knock on effect on the ability of ski resorts to make snow.
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Sunday, 11 November, 2007
Avalanche starters get year ski ban
The 19th of January 2006 was a particularly bad day in what was a particularly bad year. Meteo France had issued avalanche warnings after 50cm of fresh snow, accompanied by moderate to strong winds, formed slabs on north to east facing slopes. The avalanche risk was high (4/5) over much of the French Alps but the temptation of so much fresh snow was too much for many off-piste skiers. The result, by the end of the day five had been killed in avalanches and there were many less serious incidents across the region.
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Friday, 09 November, 2007
Environmentalists take aim at snowmobilers
Yesterday saw the opening legal shots in a long standing dispute between the refuge Napoleon on the Col d’Izoard and the group SOS environment. The court case is in the Gap criminal court. The refuge is being prosecuted unter the French Mountain Law for using a motor vehicle on a highway normally closed to traffic due to snow cover.
Image: Mountain Wilderness Italy
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Saturday, 03 November, 2007
Pyrenean Glaciers melting away
This summer the ice fall of the Petit Vignemale has been disintegrating. It is the last in the Pyrenees and it illustrates the spectacular retreat of the regions glaciers over the last century. In the same range this summer the ice in the couloir du Clot de la Hount has also melted. A classic mixed ice and rock route on the north face of the Vignemale, the couloir de Gaube has also dried out.
Glacier d’Ossoue
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Monday, 22 October, 2007
Ride Hard, Ride Safe
Over than 300,000 British skiers are putting themselves at risk of being killed or injured by an avalanche this winter according to an avalanche safety expert. Henry Schniewind, an off-piste safety instructor based in upmarket ski resort of Val d’Isère has said that about a quarter of the 1.25 million British winter sports enthusiasts will venture outside of open and secured ski runs.
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Avalanche Days 2007
The ANENA (French National Association for the Study of Snow and Avalanches) is organising its a new set of “avalanche days” this autumn. The road show will visit Toulouse and Pau in the Pyrenees on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11 November, Gap in the Hautes-Alpes on Saturday 24th November and Albertville in the Savoie on Saturday 15th December.
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Friday, 19 October, 2007
Chamonix to have ‘Ski Ambassadors’, more lift openings
A new programme for winter 2007/08 will be started in Chamonix called ‘ski ambassadors’, designed to help tourists at the ski hills find their way around, give information and ‘animate’ the morning ski queues.
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