It has been a windy day in the French Alps. At 10am speeds of 150km/h were recorded at the summit of the Bellevard in Val d'Isere. This meant lift closures. Nearby la Plagne recorded speeds of 100km/h and the Roche de Mio gondola was shut for a while. Things were a bit calmer at the Aiguille du Midi (80km/h) and Grands Montets (50km/h) but still enough to shut a number of high altitude lifts in the Mont Blanc area.
It was interesting to read the avalanche bulletins for the Haute Tarentaise and Haute Maurienne for today (5 March 2015). Meteo France were forecasting 20 km/h overnight falling to 10km/h in the afternoon, at 3000 meters altitude. In neighbouring ranges their forecasts were from 80 to 100km/h. It is worth noting that if you make plans based on that information and an avalanche risk of 2 below 2200 meters altitude that things might be quite different on the terrain. The text of the bulletin doesn't correspond to the wind forecast warning of "a serious risque of slabs, already in place or being created... strong winds from the North to North-East." There is obviously a bug somewhere on their website.
There were avalanche incidents in the Blonnière in the Haute Savoie and in the Belledonne where a 62 year old ski tourer was completely buried except for a hand on the col de Roche Noire on the east side of the range. He was rescued after 10 minutes under the snow by soldiers on exercise nearby and was uninjured and able to ski down unassisted.
