HAT Snow Report December 16th 2009 part 2

Chatting with Henry 5 minutes ago, the best snow has been in cohesionless surface granular snow. But as new snow falls on top of this (it is falling as I write this note) this cohensionless snow will become a potentially weak layer in the pack.

How risky depends on how much snow falls According to the medium term forecast, we are due 80cm at 2500 by next Wednesday. The snow falling this weekend is quite light but a big dump is indicated for Monday and Tuesday.

With the mention of weak layers emerging on the surface of the current snowpack, this will make for fragile conditions over Christmas.

Wherever you are skiing this Christmas and New Year keep an eye on the bulletins and the presence of weak layers.

If you are in Val d'isere or Tignes come to one of our talks to find out more about the weak layers. There are great offers on Food and drink (see below)

Chris Radford. HAT ezine editor

Snow report and tips from Henry

HAT Snow Report December 16 2009

It has been very, very cold over the past week with temps getting down to -20 at 2000 metres. It looks like we'll be getting some light snow over the weekend with continued cold temps until Sunday/Monday when the snow will increase with the temperatures (but snow down to at least 1500 metres).

Snow Stability

The cold temps have helped to make some really good snow for skiing BUT they have, at the same time, also created a weak layer that will be sitting under the new snow predicted for the weekend and early this coming week.

That means that in most places where there is new snow, there will be a weak layer underneath it. That also means that there will be quite a bit of instability out there especially on steep wind loaded slopes. Wind loaded slopes are slopes where the snow accumulates more than on other slopes because they are mostly protected from the wind.

Tip of the week:

As we say in the Basic Henry's Avalanche Talk, and there are many different layers of snow in the snowpack and some of these layers are stronger than others; sometimes there can be weak, fragile layers in the middle of the snowpack or even at the bottom. There is a weak layer down to the bottom now. So be careful out there.

Have Fun and Be Safe! Henry

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