Hi All,

I am off to the Les Houches for 3 months in January starting from January and was just wondering how close the village is to the mountain and aslo is any part of the town/village in avalanche areas? I know that things like this rarely happen but the Montroc avalanche happened and I’d just like to know the potential risks if there are any.

Also is there any more info on the Les Houches lift system opening for the 08/09 season?

Thanks in advance,
Craig

Interesting question, here is the avalanche map for the area:

ftp://avalanchesftp.grenoble.cemagref.fr/epaclpa/CLPA_feuilles_carte/alpes/CLPA_AJ67.jpg

- note that it is an ftp link, you will have to cut and paste to your web browser. It is about 3MB size.

You will see little of les Houches is in known avalanche paths (unlike the chalets at Montroc). I’m assuming that, whatever the legals, the lifts will open at les Houches. Both town halls (St Gervais, Houches) say they have the legal power to run the lifts whatever the Grenoble court concludes about the contracts. Hopefully the lifts will open with a single lift pass for the whole area.

Thanks Davidof that’s Reasurring on both counts. I’ve just compared the avalanche map to google maps and the apartment that we have rented is 90 meters to the right of the run off of avalanche number 4. I presume that the pink area highlights the run off or the maximum recorded distance that the avalanche has reached?

How far back does this map record?

Fingers crossed about Les Houches - it would be a real shame to see that lifts not run although, the run back to Les Houches from St Gervais will be fun with not so many people on the slopes!

Interesting question indeed. Have to admit I never thought about checking such information before booking mountain accommodation, though I tend to be one to worry about everything…

On the other hand, I reckon that purely from a point of view of statistics, your risk of dying while travelling by car to Les Houches is exponentially higher than the risk of you dying from an avalanche inside your residence even if it were within the pink area.

Happy skiing!

Have a look at this link for news on les Houches:

http://www.chamonet.com/whats_new_article.php?id_whats_new=3972&id_back=1

alpanian - 31 October 2008 04:40 PM

On the other hand, I reckon that purely from a point of view of statistics, your risk of dying while travelling by car to Les Houches is exponentially higher than the risk of you dying from an avalanche inside your residence even if it were within the pink area.

Very true. It was more from a point of interest but always nice to know that you should be ok

Does anyone know how much a season pass is for Les Houches?

Cheers

Hi David

That link to the avalanche picture is fascinating.  Is there a similar picture for Villaroger?

Cheers, Guy

Guy Nicholson - 05 November 2008 05:37 AM

That link to the avalanche picture is fascinating…

dito that, tres cool!

Villaroger is on AP68

ftp://avalanchesftp.grenoble.cemagref.fr/epaclpa/CLPA_feuilles_carte/alpes/CLPA_AP68.jpg

You can see that it is fairly safe. A couple of slides that can come down as far as the road, probably down stream beds when the risk is 4/5. The kind of thing you see in this report

http://www.data-avalanche.org/alea_avalanches/view_item/Avalanche/50000211