HAT Snow Report for 3 April, 2010
More snow, cold over the weekend (which means more powder!) and some windy periods. Then a bit of sun maybe on Tuesday then.. more snow..
Early April (or even late March) is usually when I’m lecturing on how and when to get the best of the melt/freeze cycles and how to ski the resulting nice spring snow that we usually have at this time of year. But we haven’t had enough melting and freezing yet to warrant a proper spring snow edition to the HAT Snow Report. Except for a brief nasty rain and warm period a couple of weeks ago, we’re still getting lots of snow above 1800 metres in the Northern French Alps. Still more snow is forecast into next week!
Snow Quality and Stability
The snow quality has been great: we’re back to winter temperatures, fresh snow and thus nice winter powder – this is what we live for!
As far as the stability: The rain and very warm weather from 10-14 days ago, which made the snowpack wet up to 2400 metres and very humid up to close to 2800 metres, helped to solidify the snowpack and make it very stable under this new snow. The main thing I'm focused on now is the wind coming out of varied directions (a bit of East at times but mainly Southwest to Northwest).
This wind, along with the snow, has already created some unstable slabs that are becoming deeper and more unstable with each snowstorm. So while I’m skiing in a lot of these wind loaded areas (because the snow is good there), I’m also wary of triggering a slab avalanche in steep terrain and/or if there are steep slopes above me.
I also think that North’ish slopes above 2600-2800 metres are generally unstable because they weren’t really drenched two weeks ago and ultimately stabilized by that rain and warming that we had then; so there’s a big layer of cohesionless snow lying under all this fresh snow on those high North slopes.
Tips for this coming week
Keep up-to-date on the snow conditions and stability by visiting our blog on www.getoffpiste.com and go to the avalanche forecast translation in the left column, OR if you can read French, on: www.meteo-france.com >Montagne>Bulletins Avalanches.
Have Fun, Be Safe!
Off Piste & Avalanche Awareness Talks: Week of 4th April:
Monday (on bad weather days) 15.30 sharp Basic Talk at the Moris in Val d’Isère Weds 18.00 sharp Basic Talk at the Pacific Bar in Val d’Isère You need to show up at least15 mins before the talk to take advantage of the deals on food & drink!
Tickets are €7.50 (one person under 18 per adult free) and includes great deals on food and drinks at each place! Pre-booking on line price is: £6 on www.henrysavalanchetalk.com (if you can’t come to a talk see our on-line talks on the web site)
HAT is taking the Talks on-snow this year for people who want to learn more in Val d’Isère & Tignes!
See www.henrysavalanchetalk.com for more info on these practical short courses.
