About 5cm of snow overnight at 1060m, 12cm at 2300m in the Belledonne massif (top of the 7 laux and Chamrousse pistes). A bit less snow in the interior ranges, 8cm in the Haute Maurienne.

Moderate winds from the N/NE with 5cm of fresh at Val d’Isere, not much snow transport. Stronger winds from W then N in the Belledonne / Grandes Rousses with some snow transport.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzO4Ju1Fpps

I didn’t get a picture due to a flat battery but snow down to 600/800 meters on the hills surrounding Geneva this morning. Still snowing a bit this morning. I’m locked in a basement in the Red Cross all day.

Looking around there has been about 15cm in the Haute Maurienne and Haute Tarentaise over the last 24 hours, 20cm in the la Grave area. More like 10cm in the rest of the Northern French Alps.

davidof - 21 February 2011 09:03 AM

I didn’t get a picture due to a flat battery but snow down to 600/800 meters on the hills surrounding Geneva this morning. Still snowing a bit this morning. I’m locked in a basement in the Red Cross all day.

Is that some sort of training exercise? Someone comes and rescues you while the Red Cross keep saying “don’t throw the fragmentation grenade at the hostage” to the rescuers?

That kind of thing, yes.

You are lucky you are not in the rat-race anymore.

Another 5cm top up in places like the Vercors and Chartreuse, still not very skiable, didn’t snow higher up, probably due to the cloud base.

The Pyrenees have seen another 20cm of snow and extreme avalanche risk. There will be some major purges as it warms today probably cutting roads.

Yesterday at Les Monts-Chevreuils just above the col des Mosses, it’s a closed (2001) ski station. Really quite good snow, the top’s only 1750m and a group of kids had skinned up, their first turns looked great in powder. There would have been a walk back at the finish I think, they looked to be heading to Moulins which was grass at bottom when I drove by.

I like the lift station. There is certainly more snow than here in the Isere, it has virtually melted off the south facing slopes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPr47IK9AoE

A couple of snowshoers are missing in the Pyrenees. They were last seen just before 9am on Tuesday morning at village de l’Oô (Haute-Garonne) [note: I’ve done the walk up to the lac d’Oô, fantastic route). The men had planned to climb to the Granges-d’Astau to finish their tour in the ski resort of les Agudes after passing over the col d’Esquierry. Difficult weather conditions have kept the search and rescue helicopter on the ground and made a ground search complicated. According to the PGHM it is hard to cover much ground due to the deep snow and the risk of avalanche.

There have been a number of natural avalanches during the night cutting a number of roads including the Franco/Spanish road tunnel at Bielsa.

davidof - 23 February 2011 07:27 PM

I like the lift station. There is certainly more snow than here in the Isere, it has virtually melted off the south facing slopes.

There’s a couple of defunct stations here, there’s also Pic Chausy which was part of the Les Mosses domain. It would have been quite a reasonable lift there, north facing slopes, a black run running from the top with about 1000m vertical. There was a long running saga about removing the lift buildings which was finally done last year (or the year before, I can’t quite recall). At Lécherette the lifts aren’t running but they’ve got a nice shiny new(ish) piste basher I noticed so there must be some money. While at Château d’Oex it’s a bit hit or miss, it’s hard to see how it’s a going concern, in fact it was the Château d’Oex lift company who ran the Monts Cheverueil lift until it closed.

And yet, just down the way at Moléson they’re putting a new lift in, the proximity to the autoroute and the city of Fribourg means they do a fair business, in fact probably more in the summer than the winter. The lesson seems to be around there that if you can get tourists and bikes up in the summer there’s money to be made.

The Northern Alps is currently experiencing its most sustained snowfall for 2011. In addition to the 30cm that fell over the last week between 20-30cm has fallen overnight and the snow is continuing at the moment. The snow isn’t hitting the Pyrenees much but they’ve had up to a meter in places over the last week. Enough to close ski resorts such as Cauterets and most of Bareges.

There have been a couple of avalanche incidents. Late yesterday afternoon a 47 year old man suffered leg injuries after being hit by an avalanche in the Grande Autane sector of the Champsaur range close to Orcieres. On Friday a 35 year old snowboarder was very seriously injured by an avalanche in l’Alpe d’Huez. He was skiing the Fare couloir when he downclimbed a rock passage. As he was putting his board back on he triggered a slab. Only partially buried he suffered head injuries in the fall.

A video update on the conditions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdXQrkx_L1U

Quite a bit of avalanche activity in the pre-alpes over the last couple of days. A skier triggered a slab on the Dent de Crolles yesterday losing a ski in the process. The avalanche occur ed on the large open south-west face which has a slope of around 30-35 degrees. There had been 40cm of fresh snow accompanied by wind. Three skiers died earlier in the season in the same sector after triggering an avalanche.

Another incident is on-going in the Vercors this afternoon. Three skiers have been buried by an avalanche at Corrençon shortly before 15h00. Two of the skiers were recovered without injury, a third is in a serious condition. The slide stopped at the Edelweisse red run.

Meteo France was forecasting a risk of 3 (considerable) today for both sectors with all slope angles at risk.

The skier in a serious condition has not survived. One of the other skiers was injured in the incident.

davidof - 23 February 2011 07:27 PM

I like the lift station. There is certainly more snow than here in the Isere, it has virtually melted off the south facing slopes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPr47IK9AoE

A couple of snowshoers are missing in the Pyrenees. They were last seen just before 9am on Tuesday morning at village de l’Oô (Haute-Garonne) [note: I’ve done the walk up to the lac d’Oô, fantastic route). The men had planned to climb to the Granges-d’Astau to finish their tour in the ski resort of les Agudes after passing over the col d’Esquierry. Difficult weather conditions have kept the search and rescue helicopter on the ground and made a ground search complicated. According to the PGHM it is hard to cover much ground due to the deep snow and the risk of avalanche.

There have been a number of natural avalanches during the night cutting a number of roads including the Franco/Spanish road tunnel at Bielsa.

The bodies of the two missing snowshoers have been found yesterday under 250cm of snow at 2000m altitude under the couret (col) d’Esquierry. The remains were found by their relatives who have continued to search the area after the official operation wound down. They spot a hole dug by an animal and investigated the area with probes. On getting a result they called the mountain police. The men were no doubt killed by an avalanche in the poor weather conditions of the 22nd February.

Snow has started to fall in Canada, can not wait for the new season.