I mentioned this on the main page in the comments but there was quite a sizeable avalanche in the Perrins couloirs in l’Alpe d’Huez yesterday afternoon. No-one hurt. I think the risk rating was 4 yesterday so probably folks want to be careful about these kind of routes at the moment. Skiable snow is down to around 800 meters now with some interesting “low mountain” routes being done for the first time this year - I liked the Dent du Chat (cat’s tooth) above Chambery posted to skitour.fr yesterday

http://www.skitour.fr/sorties/mont-du-chat,12125.html#sortie

In the Isere there was 90cm at 1500 meters altitude, 70cm at 2500 meters. In the Mont-Blanc around 80cm at 2400 meters. Over 1 meter at 1600 meters in the Vercors. The snow didn’t make it much further than the Hautes-Alpes where there was around 50cm. Corsica had around 50 accompanined by strong winds. There was over a meter of snow in the Pyrenees above 2000 meters.

I was up on the Saleve at 1300 meters yesterday evening. The snowpack is pretty much isothermic at the moment and will melt pretty quickly at this altitude with the current temperatures (around 5C in the air).

There was a large avalanche on the Pas de Chevre above Grands Montets yesterday afternoon. The rescue workers probed the slide all afternoon, a snowboarder was caught by the avalanche but managed to dig himself out before rescue workers arrived on the scene.

A 56 man from Leeds in the UK died in Tignes crossing between pistes. It seems he fell down the slope and hit his head suffering severe injuries. I’m told the rescue workers battle very hard to save the man but their efforts were in vain.

Be careful on steeper slopes that will purge the new snow with warmer afternoon temperatures. Except where you have some local knowledge off piste and touring should be confined to early in the day now.

Laurent from skitour has reported an avalanche at les 7 Laux near Grenoble that caught one young snowboarder who was off piste in a group of 5 without any avalanche gear. The young man was buried up to his waste but with the quantity of snow it could easily have been worse.

The slide happened on Wednesday (26 March) at 15h30. A large slide was apparently triggered by the passage of a ski tourer in the combe de la Pra (before the ski resort encroached into this bowl this was a very popular route for ski tourers). The ski tourer released his avalanche ball but was not buried by the slide. The slide hit an off piste skier lower down the bowl. He was buried waist deep and it took half an hour for 3 people to dig him out. The deposit measured 3 meters deep so one can only imagine what would have happened if he had been buried (without a transceiver). Given the density and water content of the snow survival chances would be extremely limited - perhaps a few minutes at best.

After last weekend’s winter blowout (see film) we are firmly into the start of the spring touring season. The skiable snowline is around 1100-1300 meters in the Northern Alps - 1100 only if you find a nice track with a good base. Spring touring also means spring timing. On any slopes threatened by avalanches that means 7am at the end of March, earlier if you intend skiing east sector slopes which see the sun very early at this time of year. We heard of some guys who had a fright in the Belledonne today as a slope purged - they had started climbing at 10am.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2355335566879684288

We headed to the Breche de Replomb, this couloir is very visible from the motorway north of Grenoble. Wide and never too steep - somewhere between 35 to 40 degrees it is what the French call a “couloir ecole” - a learner couloir. We passed across the summit of our favourite mountain l’Orionde before zig-zagging up the slope. 41 hairpins from the base of the couloir according to the group that followed and over a 1000 meters of making tracks for us. It is rare to be the first into this bowl and at the breche we waited half an hour for the following group to make use of our tracks (and not be buried by sliding snow) before heading down.

We found mixed conditions. On the north slopes between 1300-1800 meters the overnight rain had left a sun crust. Moving onto the west slopes of l’Orionde there was worked powder, very good to ski and looking around at other west facing slopes this good snow seemed to be generalized. On the west slopes of the Replomb there was heavy powder which became slabby in the couloir. Nothing too suspect, just 10cm of cohesive snow on old powder. Skiing back down some of the best conditions were on the North-West bowl of the Orionde from 2000 to 1600 meters (a sure bet as Anny says). Further down the crust had pretty much melted by midday and all was skiiable although difficult in some places with very heavy snow. Below 1400 meters the snow was melting fast.

We had very warm temperatures yesterday (Sunday 30/March), 20C in the valley bottoms with a strong south-westerly foehn wind developing in the mid-morning. Wind speeds were over 100km/h at altitude moving a lot of snow around. Overnight there was fresh snow down to 1200 meters in the central French Alps, 1000 meters further north. You may have noticed that avalanche bulletins are not being issued at the moment - this is due to strike action by the French Weather service. Hopefully they will resume today.