There was quite a bit of “precipitation” to greet the 1st of March. At least in the Savoie. 20cm of new snow at 2700 meters but with the zero isotherm at 2000m don’t expect much below 1700-1800 meters. The conditions at 1700m have got worse over the last 24 hours as snow is washed away. Hopefully if the clouds clear out tonight we will get a good refreeze but watch out for avalanches as rain overloaded slopes warm up on Sunday.

The winds from the south have been very strong. I would watch those north facing slopes above 2500 meters which have a layer of weak facetted snow on them. Despite the sunny weather they have remained quite cold over the last few weeks which has weakened the snowpack.

Looking futher ahead the zero isotherm will rise to above 3000 meters on Sunday (2/3/2008) afternoon with a sudden return to winter on Tuesday with considerable snow above 1000 meters.

A Chamonix guide has been killed in Argentière-la-Bessée (Hautes-Alpes) around 1pm yesterday after a 50 meter ice column he was climbing collapsed. His client, a Grenoble resident, was belaying at the foot of the column suffered a broken nose from falling ice but the rope relaying him to the guide was cut by the tonnes of falling ice. Another group, including an Italian guide, helped him to safety and called the PGHM in Briancon.

The ice climb, called the “Baiser de Lune” is situated in the Vallon du Fournel. According to the Gendarmerie that the ice fall had been weakened by the very warm winter weather including a foehn wind in the valley. The Baiser de Lune has not been seen for a number of years due to lack of water or snow. It reappeared this winter and has attracted a number of climbers over the last few weeks. Gérard Pailheret, a local guide, told the Dauphine Libere newspaper that ice climbing was a question of judgement, a bit of warmth was needed to soften the ice otherwise the shock of crampons and axes could break the ice.

http://www.ledauphine.com

There was also a large spring type avalanche on the Arbaron near the ski resort of les Carroz. An eye witness thought they saw a skier taken in the slide but a major search operation involving the fire services, police and 20 ski instructors plus two helicopters found no trace of the victim. As there were no ski tracks on the slope leading into the slide rescue workers do not think there is a victim.

The temperature, especially at altitude in the Northern French Alps, will drop markedly tomorrow (Monday 3/3/08) afternoon with a weather front moving in from the west. This will bring snow initially to 1800 meters altitude. On Tuesday snow down to 1100 m -> 300 m is expected but we are not sure how much yet. The temperature will be -20C at 3000 meters, quite a change from the very warm conditions we have been used to. Expect the avalanche risk to rise. Although south facing slopes are pretty stable there are some weaker layers on north facing slopes.

Just got back from a weekend in Serre Chevalier and La Grave.  Unfortunately I had to go to meet a friend from the UK, otherwise I would have not bothered.

Snow conditions were truly awful.  Unbelievably bad.  “Snow”, i.e. distinct flakes or crystals, was only really identifiable above 3200m.  Below this there was a mix of skied-out hardpack, slush, frozen slush in the shade, crud, breakable crust, crusty transformed snow, more slush, and, below about 1800m, a fifty-fifty slush and mud mix.  It has not snowed for nearly four weeks and they are desperate.  No snow fell on Friday night.  South facing slopes have only partial snow cover, and below 2000m on south-facing slopes there is no snow at all.

Even though some reasonable snowfalls are expected this week, there is no base to speak of, and it looks like it will be an early end to the 2007/8 ski season.  On verra…

Tom

Yes la Grave is all north facing and wouldn’t be great in these conditions as after a four weeks without snow even the hidden corners would have been skied.

Since the start of March there have been a series of weak weather fronts that have brought snow down to 800-1000m but skiing only really starts at 1200m on very sheltered north sector slopes, 1400-1600 meters on lower angled south sector slopes. There has been about 10-20cm of fresh snow at 2000m with 30cm at 3000m altitude. This has been accompanied by some very strong north-easterly winds. Despite the prevailing winds the biggest risk is on north to west sector slopes above 2000 m where the snowpack is most fragile. Below this altitude the snowpack is isothermic with a temperature close to zero and relatively stable in the colder conditions we are now experiencing.

Despite the recent snow we have one of the poorest starts to March on record below 1700 meters!

It has been incredibly windy in the alps over the last couple of days with a lot of slab formation. Corsica and the Pyrenees have also been pounded by the storm and have probably got better snow then up north. Andorra is currently cut off by the main roads and even the back access via Spain is very difficult going. Ax-3 Domaines has 30cm of fresh snow. In the Western Pyrennes they’ve had 40cm in Capcir and Puymorens. In the Aveyron there has been less snow but roads are closed to drifting. The fresh snow has caused chaos in the Hautes Pyrenees where a number of stations have had to close due to the conditions but should reopen today.

There was a very strong wind blowing from the south-east today, quite warm too, well out of the wind. I was on my skinny skis (65mm underfoot) so wasn’t going to take kindly to crust. Luckily by aimed for the wavy snow I was able to find some soft skiable stuff (you can see the snow transport in this photo)

this rapidly turned to about 20-30cm of light powder

The mid-mountains are pretty dry at the moment. As this picture of the east face of the Grand Som shows (Chartreuse range, north-west of Grenoble).

A snowshoer was killed on these slopes a couple of weeks ago after losing his footing.

This photo was taken earlier in the week and shows an avalanche off rocks under the west slopes Pointe de Marcelly in the Chablis

apart from these localized slides the snowpack in the Alps remains pretty stable, unlike the eastern Pyrenees where the risk was 4/5 on Saturday.

It is raining now but quite warm, I doubt there is going to be much below 2000m.

The weather has been very unsettled since Sunday night with a lot of wind from various directions coupled with heavy precipitation.

There has been around 30cm of new snow at 1600 meters in the Northern Alps with up to 60cm at altitude. The zero isotherm was around 2000-2300 meters over the last 12 hours and there has been rain at altitude which has not helped conditions. Expect many wet snow slides in mid elevations and poor skiing conditions. Higher up the winds have formed new slabs especially close to ridges, summits and cols. Avalanche risk is High (4/5) above 2000 meters across the Northern French Alps and Considerable (3/5) elsewhere.

There has been considerable fresh snow and very strong winds in Corsica and the central Pyrenees.

These are some of the trickiest conditions since December.

As usual this year it got very warm with rain finally to 2400 meters on Wednesday. This left a nice layer of ice on the snow for skiers Thursday morning with some very slippery conditions. Today the temperature is hovering around 20C in the alpine valleys. Things will change from Sunday with snow returning above 1500 meters to the Alps.

A young German snowboarder was killed off piste in Valmorel yesterday after falling a dozen meters over a waterfall. His body was found by rescue workers in water at the foot of the fall.

Wind from the north-west continued to move snow around on Thursday at altitude. There should be some refreeze over Friday night with a degradation in the weather from midday Saturday.

I was busy skiing over the weekend so didn’t get a chance to do any updates but there was a lot going on with three avalanche deaths in the Savoie and Haute-Savoie. Saturday morning was a mix of fire (on east sector slopes) and ice (on north sector slopes). There was a thick ice crust between 1500-2000 meters caused by the recent rain. This was on top of old cohesive snow which didn’t look great, hopefully the crust will bridge this. The surface of the crust was incredibly icy, even low angled slopes were treacherous and I had to tackle 100 meters of 35 degrees (thankfully with no exposure). Hop turns in those conditions are not my cup of tea.

On east slopes, even at 10am, the going was soft although the skiing was good. There was skiable snow down to 1100 meters. My tour brushed with the domains of the Roc d’Enfer and Pras sur Lys/Sommand and the conditions looked very good on piste with plenty of fresh snow above 1500 meters.

There was a serious avalanche on Friday on the Aiguille Rouge above les Arcs.

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0820-serious-avalanche-off-piste-at-les-arcs/

as well as some minor incidents elsewhere. Avalanche risk was Considerable with the north-westerlies earlier in the week loading east facing slopes especially above 2300 meters (the snow/rain level on Wednesday).

On Saturday two experienced ski tourers from les Houches were killed by a large avalanche.

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0821-two-skiers-killed-les-houches-avalanche/

I’m surprised the risk returned to 2 so quickly in the Haute-Savoie at that kind of altitude given the fresh snow. Still 2 (Moderate) is not to be ignored. As Claude Rey once said “globally things are good, locally there is a risk of death”.

Given the fresh snow down to 1100 meters on Sunday we decided to spend a day off piste in le Hirmentaz above lake Geneva. The snow was sticky at the bottom of the pistes but higher up there was good powder on a solid bases for some low angled stuff between the trees. The strong north-westerly continued with a lot of snow being moved onto east sector slopes again. We stuck to skiing west faces. Great thing about these small resorts is that no-one can ski powder so you are left making freshies the whole day.

Overnight the snowline seems to have been down around 1000 meters judging by the cover on the Saleve above Geneva.

A few snow depths, In the Northern Alps at 2500 meters there has been 70-80cm of new snow, at 1500 meters around 20cm of fresh snow. All this accompanied by strong north-westerly winds. Corsica has had no new snow but very violent winds. There was around 20cm of fresh in the Southern Alps. No new snow in the Pyrenees.

Colorado Powder

It has snowed over a meter at altitude since Thursday and the current
weather looks set to continue until at least Thursday, maybe longer.

We were out touring today. Low angled stuff in woodland between 900
and 1800 meters with no slopes above. The headline risk was 4 - High but with 50-80cm of
fresh snow sitting on an old base or directly on the ground the risk
was probably a high 2. I wouldn’t have skied any open slopes or stuff
above 2000 meters today. As the recent spate of incidents, especially
the soldiers on the Sorbier, have shown the mountain is not to be
underestimated. We’ve doubled the number of avalanche deaths in France
this winter over the last 7 days and it is very rare for March to have
more fatalities than January or February.

One of the factors pushing up the risk is the quality of snow. Whereas
most powder is around 100kg to 250kg per meter cube what has fallen this
weekend is 50kg per m3. I’ve not seen snow this light since 1999 and we
all know where that lead - Powder avalanches ripping through alpine
villages. It is snowing like in the Rockies. It is the first time for a long time where my Atomic TG10s,
with 67mm underfoot, were not up to the conditions. To get the most out
of this snow you want 80mm+. I wish I’d had the Dynafit Manaslu’s on test
at the moment.

Take care out there,

Looks like a dramatic rise in temperatures coming next weekend—should make things interesting.

I’ll be getting out for some touring starting this Wednesday. If you might be interested in joining, get in touch.

Ken

Snow keeps also falling and falling on Auvergne. The wind has created windslabs, but skiing in the resorts is already like having a full ration of powder, the larger skis the better! The chaine des Puys, lower in altitude, is also a good alternative for touring.
And this doesn’t seem to stop: winter is finally back!

Hi Eric,

Yes I’ve seen some trips posted to skitour.fr and the conditions look good. Great news after some poorer conditions over the last couple of years. Maybe you will be skiing the Sancy in May gain like 2006?

Ken, Good that you are back, the conditions are totally different from February as you will know. I’m careful about heading into the high mountains at the moment. If I get the time we’ll head back to the Chartreuse this weekend and I will let you know.