Hat Snow report Feb 20th 2010 & avalanche bulletin.

HAT Snow Report for 20 Feb, 2010

Most of the nice snow this past week (before Thursday) could be found if you were willing to walk a bit and/or if you new where to find some untouched snow and squeeze a few turns in-between older tracks after lots of traversing!

The best quality snow has been on North’ish facing slopes as the South facing slopes have been ‘sun affected’ and crusty despite the very cold temperatures of earlier this past week. The predicted snow for this coming week will make it better and better!

Snow Quality and Stability

Several accidental avalanches were reported through mid week this past week (before it started snowing) by the Météo France avalanche forecasting services in parts of the Northern French Alps on East, North and West slopes above 1800 metres (no one was seriously hurt).

These reports are not surprising to me as there is a very weak layer of snow that I keep coming across especially where the good snow is: on East, North, West slopes above 1800 metres.

Any new snow that has accumulated since Thursday in these areas (including snow blown in by the wind) will easily create new instability especially on steep slopes. You can keep up-to-date on this by visiting our blog on www.getoffpiste.com or if you can read French on www.meteo-france.com >Montagne>Bulletins Avalanches.

Tips for this coming week

There are a couple very weak layers on North’ish facing slopes and very shaded slopes due to the periods of cold temperatures that we have experienced this season.

This weak layer has not been much of a problem recently due to relatively small amounts of snow in each snowstorm that we’ve had over the last few weeks… but I’m keeping an eye on this instability since the best skiing is in the very places where the snowpack seems the weakest… With the new snow, I’m therefore starting on low angle slopes and taking into consideration everything that we present in our talks – a summary is on my blog entry of 14 January on www.getoffpiste.com

Off Piste & Avalanche Awareness Talks: Week of 20th February:

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.

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