HAT Snow Report for 6 March, 2010
This season’s trend of cloudy weather, wind and light snow with the occasional clearing spell for a few hours or a few days continued this past week.
The result was more great skiing simply because the old tracks always seemed to be covered up by the frequent snow showers. This coming week looks like more of the same: cold cloudy weather for Saturday and Sunday with maybe some snow showers, a bit clearer on Monday and then sunny and slightly warmer for mid-week.
Snow Quality and Stability
“I’ve been talking about a weak layer that is still persistent on North’ish facing slopes above 2200 metres, and it is still there”. This is what I’ve been saying for the past few weeks; true we haven’t had really big cycles of large avalanches, perhaps because the quantities of new snowfalls during any given snow-storm have not been that big in much of the Northern French Alps. However there has been accidental avalanche activity that can’t be neglected.
The accidental avalanche in the Combe de Signal a.k.a. Sunny Bowl in Val d’Isère last Monday, is a good example of how, with a 40 cm of new snow over a few days, a well travelled area can suddenly be triggered and take 3-5 skiers down the slope with it (see photos on blog entry for March 1 on www.getoffpiste.com). This avalanche fit the forecast in the avalanche bulletin and the definition of the danger rating for the day - which was a 3.
Tips for this coming week
a) When there's fresh snow on a steep slope, there's always some risk that should never be marginalized in the minds of the people on that slope… just in case there is an 'unlucky' avalanche.
b) Well travelled off piste runs are fairly well packed down by in-resort skier traffic now, but once you venture even a little way from where people have been skiing over the last couple months, it’s a much less stable situation. Plus you never know… So 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.
Off Piste & Avalanche Awareness Talks: Week of 7th March:
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.
