Meteo France has revised this afternoon’s avalanche risk to 5 above 1800m in the Savoie and Mont Blanc range and has warned of large spontaneous avalanches which may hit roads are a “quasi-certainty”. According to a statement issued by the Savoie Highways department at 10h30 the situation is “not critical” with a snowline of 2000-2200m meters with the exception of Bourg St Maurice or the Haute-Maurienne where the snowline is lower. However the snowline will drop to 500m this evening with 10cm of snow at this altitude.

Vehicles travelling beyond Bourg St Maurice must fit snow chains. The Col des Aravis is closed due to avalanche risk. Avalanche control work has been carried out at Bonneval sur Arc, Val-Thorens, Celliers and Les Arcs and operations are planned at Champagny, Pralognan, St Jean de Belleville and Tignes which may lead to temporary road closures. The A43 may be snow covered between Dullin and L’Epine tonight.

MF has issued an alert orange for the Savoie and Haute-Savoie as storm Joachim crosses the region. Up to 150cm of snow is expected in the Mont Blanc area with disruption on the A40 leading to Chamonix.

In Chamonix the security commission met this morning and decided to keep the Col des Montets closed so there is no access to Vallorcine and they also closed the road between Agentiere and le Tour. All the ski lifts in the valley are closed and there are walking restrictions in the hills surrounding the town. The train from le Fayet to Vallorcine was derailed due to snow at Argentiere.

The Lauteret and Vars mountain passes are closed until tomorrow.

In the Savoie the following roads are closed until tomorrow am.

• RD 902 : to Bonneval sur Arc
• RD 70 : to Hauteluce
• RD 132 : route du Plan, accès à La Giettaz
• RD 909 : axe Flumet - La Giettaz
• RD 913 : Flumet
• RD 213 : Celliers
as well as the col des Aravis (RD 909) and the gorges de l’Arly (RD 1212)

More info here
http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2011/12/16/gros-risque-d-avalanche-dans-les-prochaines-24-heures

davidof - 16 December 2011 12:40 PM

and there are walking restrictions in the hills surrounding the town.

were did you read this? probably shouldn’t have walked this afternoon then…
the MB tunnel has been closed for a while too I think. its pretty crazy here, I hope everyone can be restained and not go outon the hills.  as chaminsider said someone will get killed, just make sure its not your bro’s.  fingers crossed for everyones safety!

Good question, I can’t remember where I saw that, maybe the OHM website? It makes sense though if they are expecting avalanches to come down to valley level in some places.

lower Valais & Vaud are on 4 today. It’s still binning with snow, the wind’s dropped massively from the peaks of 130kph + last night but there’s still a lot of wind transport.

It looks like the prevailing wind direction might have spun in the night for some period, there’s all kind of drifts outside which are a challenge for our snow blower.

The local ski area is closed, Villars have some lifts running but I’d need to dig the car out to get there. Although their lower tree lined slopes might be OK.