Snow Conditions

The regional Avalanche Bulletins also contain information about snow condtions and the weather outlook.

Thursday, 01 March, 2007

Extreme to high avalanche risk in the Northern Alps

The Chartreuse on Tuesday

Between 60 and 130cm of fresh snow has fallen over the last five days in the Northern and Hautes-Alps, particularly in the Mont-Blanc, Bauges, Beaufortain and Grandes Rousses ranges. The wind has been from the south-west on Monday swinging around to the North-West. On Tuesday snow fell to quite low altitudes making ski touring in mountain ranges such as the Vercors and Chartreuse possible, something rare this winter.

Posted by davidof at 06:32 PM
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Sunday, 25 February, 2007

High avalanche risk in French Alps

Les Illettes, Belledonne Range

Last week saw spring skiing conditions in the French mountains, at least where there was snow. This has changed since Friday with three bands of snow crossing the mountains. So far temperatures have been coolest and the falls deepest in the Haute-Savoie with falls of 30cm at 1700m and 50cm at 2400m. These have been accompanied by strong winds from the south-west then west.

Posted by davidof at 08:56 PM
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Monday, 12 February, 2007

Avalanche Warning

The weather system over the course of Monday dumped 20 to 40cm of fresh snow at 2000m, 40 to 60cm at 2500m but with accumulations of snow due to the wind from the west. There have been three separate falls of snow since last Wednesday bringing 60 to 90cm of fresh to the Bauges and Beaufortain and 50cm elsewhere.

avalanche warning flag

Posted by davidof at 05:15 PM
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Tuesday, 06 February, 2007

Snow Report 5th February 2007

The last snow fell around 10 days ago although it is still possible to find areas of powder on sheltered north sector slopes. Otherwise there is spring snow on sunny slopes well angled towards the sun. The wind has done some damage with crust and blown snow which is challenging to ski as ever. The slopes are pretty stable now. We still kicked off a couple of small more or less hard slabs that were resting on a hard base. If the promised snow arrives this week expect an increase in instability. The ice crust from early January is also starting to reappear where the fresh snow has been stripped by the wind and there is a risk of sliding.

Posted by davidof at 09:54 AM
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Sunday, 28 January, 2007

Snow Report 28 January 2007

The weather is now much colder with between 30-50cm of snow in the Northern French Alps, Western Pyrenees and Hautes-Alps. Below 2000m there is little base and off-piste skiing is only sensible on grassy slopes or forest trails. The best powder is on north aspects between 2000-2500 meters with the snow wind blown in places higher up. The snowpack is unstable above 2400 m on north facing slopes and there have been some skier triggered avalanches.

Posted by davidof at 08:32 PM
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Sunday, 21 January, 2007

20th January Snow Report

Yesterday was T-shirt weather in the French mountains. 17C at 1600 m with the zero isotherm (freezing line) around 3400m however it is much cooler today with some light rain and snow above 1500 meters. Conditions are crusty/icy on north facing slopes with spring snow on east to south-west slopes although snow will remain hard today with the lack of sun. There has been some wet snow avalanche activity and slabs on east facing slopes at altitude and there are lots of weak layers on north sector slopes… expect avalanche activity to increase from Tuesday with the fresh snow.

Posted by davidof at 12:03 PM
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Friday, 19 January, 2007

Mid-mountain resorts hit hard by snow drought

There is a generalized lack of snow below 2500 meters in the French mountain ranges with almost no snow in the Vosges and Massif Central and very little snow on the summits of the Jura. All the ski resorts in these areas are currently closed. Forty mid-mountain ski resorts are also closed in the Alps, notably in the Vercors and Chartreuse. The cross country ski race in the Chartreuse, la Foulée Blanche, has had to be cancelled. While worrying this close to the all important February holiday period, representing two-thirds of turnover for a ski resort, the situation is not unknown with the winters of 89-90, 94-95 and 96-97 experiencing similar snow droughts.

snow drought in the Vercors

Posted by davidof at 10:21 AM
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Thursday, 11 January, 2007

Scorchio!

If you are in a high altitude resort you may have noticed something strange covering the slopes this morning. A dusting of fresh snow at 1800 meters. Over the last few days there has been about 20cm of fresh but above the 2500 meters level but below 2000 meters the conditions have worsened from the already poor Christmas weak. The fault, record temperatures and rain.

alps 10 jan 2007

Posted by redac at 08:32 AM
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Sunday, 07 January, 2007

Snow-Report-6th-Jan-2007

Posted by davidof at 12:54 AM
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Thursday, 04 January, 2007

Snow report on 3rd January Henry’s Avalanche Talk

Finally some snow in the Espace Killy and we’ve had some great turns as a result!

During the last snowfalls, the wind has come out of the West’ish’ and blown lots of snow over onto the east’ish’ slopes and that has been where the good skiing is. But as you may have noticed, these areas that have been ‘wind loaded’ are where most of the avalanche activity has taken place too. This wind loading of new snow on top of a weak layer has been one of the reasons for a number of close calls due to avalanches. People have been buried in the Espace Killy in the last few days and others have been buried and killed in the region over the last few days - remember that people who are taken in avalanches set them of themselves (or someone above sets it off).

Posted by chrisradford at 04:34 PM
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