I was going to write about how conditioins seemed to be stabilizing a bit as we enter March but then news reached me of Nicolas Wirsching’s death on the Grande Moucherolle in the Vercors. One of two avalanche deaths in the French alps this week.
http://pistehors.com/news/forums/viewthread/550/
I was on a similar but much less steep route than Nicolas’ today - the Pas de Rocheplane and there were quite a few microslabs near the ridge and one lower down in the crux. If you were on a steeper, more exposed route these could be problematic.
Back to the snow. The Foehn last week and rain to 1500m did a lot of damage. Conditions are poor in low mountain areas now. On east facing slopes the skiable snowline is around 1600m although you can ski lower on flatter forest trails or where snow has accumulated. However this causes a problem in itself, there were a lot of snow purges and avalanche corridors now have a lot of debris in them and slopes above lack snow as most of the slides below 1800m were full depth. Above 1800m snow conditions are good but there are some large slabs on north facing slopes above 2200 meters. On west slopes there was about 15cm of fresh powder on a hard base at 2000m. Transformed snow, or settled powder on east slopes.