davidof - 15 April 2009 09:00 PM

The next few days will be unsettled. The June temperatures which have done so much damage to the snow the last three weeks will be gone and snow is expected above 1600 meters. There could even be some April powder skiing.

For me that’s good to hear, since I’d like to see some new snow over the wind-blasted higher hardpack on some of the high-altitude slopes, then a few days for it to consolidate before I return to the action in the last week of April.

davidof - 15 April 2009 09:00 PM

I’ve been touring with Ken for the last couple of days. The col de la Valette in the North Belledonne and the Pic de la Belle Etoile near the Sept Laux ski resort. It was much colder today, a sign that the weather is about to change. Indeed the south facing Belle Etoile couloir didn’t transform despite the sun and we had a descent on hard snow. Conditions were much better from the foot of the couloir with spring skiing right to the car at 1330 meters.

That was a fun couple of days.
I thought one reason the high southerly slopes on Belle Etoile didn’t soften was because of the wind up there, and some veiling of the sun. And of course that much of that terrain is partly W-facing—for which we were a bit early. But we were right on time for the lower SW-facing slopes from Col de l’Aigleton down to the car—so I guess you have to compromise.

I think I like the mushy snow the day before on the E side of Vallette and Pic du Frene more than David did. Somehow I just have a strange enjoyment of the “mastery” of mush. Maybe it’s because I do lots of road-bicycling and road-skating in the summer, so I feel that I can obtain the speed aspect of skiing any time I want—so what I treasure about snow is its softness. Only thing I’d change about the Col de la Vallette tour was next time start a little earlier to have a shot at booting to the summit of the highest peak in the north Belledonne.

Ken

Had a good time in Queyras - avoiding the overloaded Mount Viso area… Mostly excellent spring snow with good refreeze in the first part of the week, fresh in the later part, that should merge relatively quickly with the other layers. Snow is still down to most villages or not that far - while most huts are closed :-(

1100m above Brunissard…

Sunrise near l’Izoard

North preserved powder

Mid-day delight

No radars? Let’s get some speed!

Still firm down the valley

Spring freshness

The season seems far from over!

There has been fresh snow above 1900 meters in the Alps. The avalanche risk in Southern Switzerland is High (4/5) with some roads closed due to the avalanche risk.

http://www.slf.ch/lawineninfo/index_EN

Looking out the window it is snowing down to 1300-1400 meters on the Jura. Should be some good powder conditions out there.

The Savoyards are suggesting a risk of 3

http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Avalanches/Haute-Savoie-Avalanche-Bulletin

but be careful above 2000 meters where conditions are still wintry, especially on the high mountains of the Vanoise, Ecrins and Mont Blanc.

There are some road closures on the high mountain passes with Italy, in particular the Larche.

A French woman was killed in an avalanches at the Col des Ecandies on the Haute Route

http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=200001&sid=10627724

Here is some info from skitour.fr

There was one meter of snow where we were. I was in the group, a first avalanche occured at 16h50 which swept two people into a crevasses on the glacier du Triant. The first was found ok because the guides who were with us heard his cries, we couldn’t localize him with our beacons. Then, when I was searching for the victims, a secondary avalanche hit me a french woman and 2 austrians. One of the austrians had an open fracture of the femur. Searching stopped at 19h because there were 23 of us still to airlift to the village du Triant.

That’s a sad result.
Makes me glad I was able to postpone my trip for a week.

I think lots of “Haute Route” groups don’t feel much flexibility to deviate from their planned itinerary, typically planned weeks or months in advance. 13 people in a group? makes it hard to make a decision to change plans. So even if they could have read like the 29 April 10:39am post on this forum by davidof, not _easy_ to react to it in a way that now in hindsight comes to seem “obvious”.

Even with a _guide_ leading them, I suspect there’s a lot of pressure on the guide to try to stick to the plan. I think lots of Haute Route groups don’t schedule enough days (because of work/holiday constraints and travel time) so they can still “accomplish the goal” of making it to Zermatt, if they lose much time due to bad weather or dangerous snow conditions.

I think lots of skiers, once they start out on the HR, see “doing the Haute Route” as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for accomplishment—so they allow themselves to take (supposedly) once-in-a-lifetime risks to achieve it. And I suspect _some_ members of _some_ groups sorta want the guide to help them take those risks—while other members might prefer to avoid any undue risk.

Tricky to weigh the different desires. Tough pressure on the guide.
But hard to avoid once you get into a group playing the “do the Haute Route” game.

Ken

Reflecting on what Ken has written above:

http://www.lenouvelliste.ch/fr/news/valais/l-imprudence-une-maladie-mortelle_9-140556

… we all left knowing about the bad weather, we all had the opportunity to cancel, one of the group took that decision.

From Thierry Amaudruz guide and guardian of the Cabane du Trient:
There are enormous pressures on Tour Operators, clients who take one week of holiday to do “a Haute Route” and they don’t want to hear of cancellation. Monday evening I went down to the valley but I told my colleagues that no-one should leave the refuge. But you can’t chain people up. When I give advice people generally reply “make us supper and take care of your own business”. They forget that when there is a problem it is people like us who pick up the pieces.”

An article in French from the Dauphine Libere

<<http://www.ledauphine.com/avalanche-apres-la-mort-d-une-stagiaire-il-a-porte-secours-au-peril-de-sa-vie-chamonix-@/index.jspz?chaine=85&article=126294>>

I didn’t check the bulletin but the Dauphine says 2 on the French side and 3 on the Swiss side of the border (but these are large areas that are covered). However the weather was very poor.

Looks like the weather forecast is promising for several days next week for the Alpes du Nord. So I’m eager to get out and go for some big stuff.

But the snow conditions seem kinda tricky.
Often at this time of year I’d love to go to the Haute Maurienne or Haute Tarentaise, but they had substantial avalanche danger even before the most recent storms.
The Mont Blanc massif is full of interesting objectives, but with the recent wind I’m afraid some of the high slopes will have hard snow—or dangerous slabs.
Ecrins / Pelvoux take more commitment to get into, so I’d want to see more secure conditions before I want to try.

Or maybe I could seek out objectives where the high-altitude parts are more mountaineering on ridges, rather than skiing on faces?
Or make a list of interesting Southerly slopes?

Photos from some ski peaks + tours, linked from
this page
including:
* Aiguille d’Argentiere
* Dome du Gouter + approach by Grands Mulets
* Mont Blanc du Tacul
* Grande Casse + Vanoise glaciers + Col Sud de la Gliere
* Taillefer

Ken

Good refreeze overnight with lots of hard snow this morning. You really need to be packing ski crampons and crampons and probably an ice axe. On the west slopes I was on there was a icy surface with little grip between 1900-2200 meters - probably surface water freezing rapidly as the sun went down. Take care skiing these kind of slopes. East slopes were transformed snow from 9am but west slopes were still quite hard at 11am. Not much avalanche risk below 2400 meters in the Belledonne.

Looks like they’ve cut back the avalanche forecasts to twice a week, Monday + Thursday afternoon/evenings.

Wesather’s looking nice for Wednesday + Thursday—if can manage around the major warming at higher altitudes.

Ken

Ken and I climbed to the Pointe des Cerces above Briancon/Valloire today. There was no refreeze to speak off. Fresh snow from 2700m on a breakable crust on top of a rotten snow pack. Skiable if you were gentle. Between 2700-2500 there was a steep section of transformed/humid snow which was ok to ski as you could do jump turns - not much of a push off on the rottne snow though. Below 2500 and we had firn snow, very pleasant to ski.

I checked my diary and we could ski to the car at 1960 meters a week later in 2004, today we ran out of snow at 2100.

Looking at the Belledonne the snowline has climbed 200 meters over the last week. You can find skiable snow from 1800 meters but 2000 meters ihas more reliable coverage.

Ken under the Pointe des Cerces yesterday

The first Marmot of the season

Yes that was a fun day on the Pointe des Cerces—despite the mushy snow. While the snow line might not have been as low as other years, there wasn’t much walking at the end.

Today Sunday I tried going into the Vallon d’Ambin, south from Bramans in the Haute Maurienne. Looks promising for late season touring—gentle approach to the Refuge d’Ambin. As I was climbing up, felt like more re-freeze than Saturday—but still skiing down I had plenty of mushy snow.

The road was blocked by avalanche debris (trees + big rocks) at around 1790m (lower than you’d wish). So even after the road melts out far above that point, nobody’s going to be able to drive higher toward the peaks and the refuge until they get around to applying heavy machinery to moving those rocks + trees.

Ken

Yes I heard the refreeze was better today - from around 2200 meters but it soon softened up.

Crossed from Briançon to Pralognan last week, conditions were mostly good to excellent, with only one day of bad weather, and route adaptation twice (once for unsufficient refreeze, once for windslabs). We had most of the time hard spring snow going up, then going down powder in north slopes/ couloirs for the upper parts, and carpet further down, slush when we went (twice) to lower altitude. The good conditions allowed us to cross through the summits like Thabor, Dent Parrachée, Domes de la Vanoise, Grande Casse… Glacier were stuffed with meters of snow.

I would sign with both hands to have such conditions in May every year!

Thabor North couloir

Leaving the valley behind for some time…

Climbing up Dent Parrachée

Descent from glacier de la Vanoise

Brand new day

Snow is not missing

Fun at La Grande Casse