April Skiing
Henry's Avalanche Talk reports on April skiing - written 18/4/07.
If you have ever been skiing in April and been chatting in the bars or at the barbecue afterwards, then you may have noticed there is a great divergence of views about whether the skiing was good or not for that day. The stories will make it sound like 2 different groups were in totally different resorts.
And often in a sense they were, they may have skied the same slopes on the same day, but whether it was any good all depended on the time at which they arrived at the slope.
The first thing to do on an April morning is to ascertain whether the snow has re-frozen overnight. Because this will set the tone for the whole day. If it is not refrozen, then you would be well advised to stick to pistes all day both for superior skiing and defiantly to stay safe. The snow will have loosened and humidified on the previous afternoon and if it has not been bonded back together over night, then the instability will be considerably greater than the previous day. A simple test is to just go outside and kick the piles of snow in the resort or by the first lift. If your foot bounces off, then it is hard and re frozen. If your foot goes in, then it is potentially wet and dangerous.
Last week we had 2 superb days exploring quiet pistes with a hard base and a soft top layer. The carving was superb and the rewards from skiing such excellent conditions were great.
But lets assume the refreeze has happened and the sun is out. Where to go? You should aim for pistes and untracked off piste that faces East and has caught the early morning sun. This will soften up first. Last week this remained possible until around 10.30am at 2300m. From this time we moved onto more south facing slopes before migrating to the west and north slopes after 12.00pm.
Anyone who had ignored this (and we see plenty of people on the slopes who do not seem to know this) will suffer hard and icy pistes or very dangerous icy off piste before 10.30 and then may well find themselves on slushy porridge pistes or start crunching through the off piste in the early afternoon.
Safety: The other reason for following this advice is for reasons of safety. There are 3 principle dangers in spring conditions:
1. Hard icy off piste - if you get there too early. This is very safe from avalanche danger, but if you fall on it, you are very likely to slide a very long way before you stop. Hopefully the thing that stops you will be using the self arrest technique or where you just come to the bottom of the slope. Even if you do not fall, it is very stressful and tiring to ski on it.
2. Wet slab avalanches. The snow tends to get progressively more humid through the spring and as the temperature rises each day, water forms in the snow pack and acts as a lubricant. There are then a whole range of circumstances in which the snow will release. When it does, it tends to take the whole snow pack right down to the ground level and may well bring rocks and wet lumps of snow with it. These releases are not just confined to south facing sunny slopes (see photos below). You can get a good clue about the risk of this by looking out for evidence of recent avalanche activity, but also by observing which pistes are open and closed. Last week, a number of pistes were open for the first part of the morning, and then were closed around 11.30am or 12.30pm as the risk increased.
3. Skiing in unforgiving porridge snow and causing an injury as you get more tired and struggle to cope with difficult conditions. The difference between show that has transformed from hard into a delightful soft carpet and that which has "rotted" and gone into porridge is immense. The frost is a delight and you will be charmed by it, the second will have your friends swearing at you and send you all back to the bar. So next time you hear some one say the conditions were bad out there, ask some intelligent questions and you can find out whether it is bad, or they just hit the wrong slopes at the wrong time.
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