Delayed then cancelled the raid we had planned for this week due to the poor weather (and snow) conditions…
As things go… conditions should not be good for the second part of May, but rather June!!!

ericlodi - 12 May 2010 11:17 PM

conditions should not be good for the second part of May, but rather June!!!

and that’s in the Massif Central . I heard JPPernoud saying something about the MC getting pounded again this lunchtime. Where is the snow level?

The thing that is stopping me going out at the moment is the awful weather although conditions are better in the South and over in Italy.

At 2200 m. in the Belledonne we’ve had about 30cm snowfall since the 9th… but with some wildly fluctuating temperatures.

Actually it’s a high altitude Alps raid that we had to ditch…
But as a matter of fact it’s snowing again on Sancy down to 1000m (sticking on the trees at 1200), North couloirs and coulées can be still skied, it’s névé snow so I went on foot and descended some in ‘ramasse’ which is fun too… And it’s much lighter than all carbon ski alpinism race gear

I guess Mont-Blanc and smaller 4000 will be excellent to ski in June with the current weather!

Picts and video from the - soon to be finished - season in Sancy

I saw your Tweet on the Sancy Season.

You probably saw this TR on the Breche de Roland

http://www.skitour.fr/sorties/puy-mary,28560.html#sortie

Is that Roland of Charlemagne fame I wonder ?

We have - at least - two famous French characters for breaches:

- One is Charlemagne’s nephew, Roland de Ronceveaux, who couldn’t destroy his legendary sword Durandal when he wanted to, before dying in a Pyrénées battle against the sarrasins - instead the mountain was split. Yet, why he would breach rocs in several ranges remains to be explained

- The other is the giant Gargantua from Rabelais stories. He kicked into a Beaufortain crest leaving a large breach while the rock planted itself like a tooth on the opposite mountain, that’s the Pierra Menta, a climbing place which name is nowadays better known by “collants-pipette” (ski alpinists racers). I believe this guy also left some other scars in mountains.

Btw, David, did you cross from Grenoble to Italy as you intended to?

Having snow mid-May in Sancy couloirs is not exceptional, but the winter-like ambiance is more unusual! As for the Alps, it seems June will be a good month for ski-alpinism!…

Here is the scene from les 7 laux yesterday morning

outside of areas with snowmaking it is possible to ski to around 1700 meters in the Northern Alps --- 1500 meters on sheltered north facing bowls which kept some base. There is still over 2m of snow depth at 2200 meters and some 50cm of fresh has fallen over the last week, often accompanied by strong winds from the north sector.

I’m just back from a week in Cannes where I managed to get in an ascent to the Cime de Gelas (3143meters) in the Mercantourr. Conditions were spring like but stormy by midday.

Arriving back in Grenoble I heard that Sebastien Pardo of skitour had fallen to his death in the Couloir Davin on Monday. 35 year old Sebastien lived in Barraux near Pontcharra. The accident happened at 11h30 and it seems like the snow had stayed hard in the couloir. On Sunday another skier suffered multiple injuries after falling in the couloir Piaget below the calotte d’Agneaux. A Geneva skier died on the Grand Combin in Switzerland after falling several hundred meters following a problem with his binding.

More evidences that avalanches and falls are not accidents happening to unaware ‘tourists’ but more often to seasoned mountaineers pushing the envelope too far?

Fréd Bunoz, one of the moderators on Camp2Camp spent an evening in a refuge with the couple who were skiing the Grand Combin and later met the girl and a rescue worker, her boyfriend had just been heli-ported to hospital where he later died. Fréd says that the man was traversing on hard snow when it seems that his front low-tech binding released. It seems likely that his boot was not properly engaged (icing in the lugs or under the toe? Other error? Who knows?). A reminder to always check Dynafiddles before skiing steep or icy terrain and possibly to lock-out the toe piece.

On a related note, I was skiing on my Diamirs but with a spare pare of boots on Sunday. At the very top of the slope I noticed some play in the toe-piece. The sole of the spare boots is thinner and this left some slop. Luckily I had a screw-driver with me, otherwise I would have downclimbed on crampons.

ericlodi - 26 May 2010 10:55 PM

More evidences that avalanches and falls are not accidents happening to unaware ‘tourists’ but more often to seasoned mountaineers pushing the envelope too far?

As Jereon of Skitour put it “is this a result of the normalization of steep skiing?”

http://www.skitour.fr/actu/1881-accident-au-davin

I thought this comment from Gérard Chantriaux was pertinent

Extreme skiing seems easy until you fall

Or as they say: it is not the drop but the landing that counts.

I reckon there are probably around 10-15 deaths due to falls for skiers/boarders/snow-shoers in a given season, about half of the number of avalanche fatalities. An important figure with the main danger in the late spring with hard snow conditions in the morning (or through the day if the sun doesn’t make an appearance).

davidof - 27 May 2010 10:35 AM

ericlodi - 26 May 2010 10:55 PM

More evidences that avalanches and falls are not accidents happening to unaware ‘tourists’ but more often to seasoned mountaineers pushing the envelope too far?

As Jereon of Skitour put it “is this a result of the normalization of steep skiing?”

http://www.skitour.fr/actu/1881-accident-au-davin

I think a lot of tourists see or feel this intuitively when they’re being told not to venture off piste without probe/shovel/transceiver and as a result don’t take the advice very seriously. I think they also sense that a lot of the advice, and I’m thinking of some ski forums, is just some people trying to out hardcore each other.

I think that’s unfortunate as it masks the nature of the risk recreational skiers often place themselves in. There must be some sort of distinction between what Eric correctly labels mountaineers who are placing themselves in environments with prolonged periods of risk with skills and equipment trying to manage that risk and the recreational skier with a new pair of fat skis, no equipment and no skills placing themselves in a shot period of extreme risk to ski an appealing slope near the piste.

My guess is that is you start to measure this by skier hours in terrain with elevated risk that the recreational skier accident rate doesn’t look good at all. ie mountaineers are experiencing fewer incidents per participant hour then recreational skiers trying those near piste slopes.

I’ve seen some awful choices made by recreational skiers this season, they’re focussed by that fact a young man lost his life no more than 20m from the piste in Chandolin last year and that this year not more than a couple of metres from where I’d been alarmed to see boarders that two were caught in a near piste slide.

ise - 27 May 2010 11:06 AM

I’m thinking of some ski forums, is just some people trying to out hardcore each other.

Yes, I think the ski forums are a feedback loop. Some of the steep skiers are really very good judges of snow conditions and very good skiers and only ski routes when they are in good condition. However looking at the forums, which cover a wide geographical area, a casual observer may think there are guys (and girls) putting up these fantastic routes every day of the week.

It is a reminder that the Davin, which was considered an extreme route in the 1960s but has long since been considered debonnair, is still dangerous under the wrong circumstances.

Talking of which, who would have thought there would be an avalanche death in the Pyrenees this spring? Pascal Brisset was taking part in an FFME Glacier Safety course last Saturday when he fell into a crevasse at the bottom of the north face of the Vignemale in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Dr Brisset was not roped up at the time. He fell 30 meters, the crevasse, which was 1 meter wide at the surface narrowed to less than 20cm at this point. It appears that Dr Brisset’s body heat had melted the surface of the ice letting him slip deeper into the glacier before refreezing around him. A team from the PGHM attempted to reach the victim using an electric jackhammer but had to abandon the operation due to the difficult access and the risk of rockfall.

Pascal Brisset’s Wiki: http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/Hecto

This is looking over to the Grandes Rousses above l’alpe d’Huez. Still enough snow to tour to the Etendard or les Cochettes from the col du Sabot for anyone motivated.

A 20 year old American was killed by an avalanche in Switzerland on Sunday near Kandersteg. The slide was triggered by a ski tourer who was also taken by the slide. The victim was part of a group of a party of 9 anglo-americans who were descending from the Fründenhütte at 2500m on a north facing slope, another member of the group was seriously hurt. There have been 29 deaths due to avalanches in Switzerland this year compared to a yearly average of 24.

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0991-explosion-in-number-of-ski-touring-fatalities-in-switzerland/

Not much snow below 2200 meters now, however there was a fresh scattering yesterday at altitude in the Belledonne. However there has not been an overnight refreeze since late May.