Henry's ski diary - off piste ski guide, snow report Val d'Isere, avalanche awareness

What a difference..

a few cm's can make!!

My tracks in Fornet today

Still good out there

We're still getting some nice turns in. You have to search for it a bit and the snow is changeable, but it is still quality. This beautiful weather on most of the days this past week have combined with the scenery and the skiing to provide for an excellent time. The main danger seems to be sliding on steep slopes where the snow is hard 'soufflé dur'. That may change with with the little bit of snow predicted this weekend because some of the nice snow we are finding now is the granular depth hoar and angular faceted crystals that will be a very week layer once there is new snow on top.

I skied for a few days this week with Chris Radford and his family. Chris has been editing and writing a good part of the 'E-zine' and doing a great job of summarising current off-piste conditions for the French Northern Alps and providing important tips on how to have fun and be safe. If you haven't seen the HAT 'E-zine' then you need  sign up for it here at the top of our home page henrysavalanchetalk.com!

 

 

Henry

Snowpack report 27th December 2007

This past week has given us some glorious weather and some great skiing off-piste if you were willing to sniff around for it. Proof that there was some good stuff out there is on the photos and video clips on our blogs for Chamonix and Val d'Isere.. On the down side, a ski tourer was killed in an avalanche at the beginning of the week in the Hautes-Pyrénées where the snowpack conditions and the avalanche rating were similar to here in the Northern Alps - the avalanche danger rating was 2 on the international scale of 1 to 5, five being the highest.

The colder temperatures and clear skies over the last few days has led to a continued build-up of faceted (angular) grains and depth hoar. This is the granular type snow that has been nice to ski in over the last few weeks, but will be a weak layer under the next snowfall. So even if it snows just a little bit over this weekend, you need to be on the lookout for where the 'wind loading' has been taking place because this is where the danger will be lurking. 'Wind loading' is where the wind has been blowing the snow to and where the snow is accumulating in the mountains - forming wind drifts (which is another word we use in everyday language). Again, these accumulations of snow, or drifts or slabs (slabs in French), will most probably be lying on a weak layer of snow and will be unstable.

The best way to start to figure out where these unstable areas are is to read the avalanche bulletins from Météo France (see the Meteo France or our pages click here for Savoie and here for Haute Savoie), AND to look around for yourself. It is important to look around for yourself because

1. The avalanche forecast is just a forecast and not the answer to every question about snow in the mountains and

2. Sometimes snow is blown around into funny places - the result being that you can have pockets of instability in places that were not predicted.

 

I think if we get a bit of snow, the instability will be in places that look good to ride in. This is often the case and doesn't mean that you shouldn't go there, it just means that you need to be careful. Being careful means, for example, avoiding steeps to start the day and avoiding slopes with cliffs and narrow holes below or trees or any traps below.

Tip of the week: Recent avalanche activity can be one of the best clues as to whether or not there is instability and often the this recent avalanche activity is confined to specific slopes where the instability is most acute.... And remember that it's the victim who sets the avalanche off themselves (or someone above).

Have Fun, Be Safe and Happy New Year to all of you!

Henry

Avalanche Accident & Death on Risk 2

From pistehors.com (thank you for the update David)

Ski tourer killed by Pyrenees avalanche

A 35 year old ski tourer has been killed by an avalanche in the Hautes-Pyrénées close to the ski resort of Val Louron. The deceased was named as Stéphane Sabathé. Originally from Tarbes and a resident of Toulouse was accompanied by a his wife and a friend. They were able to remain on top of the slide and were slightly hurt and in a state of shock.

The pisteurs from the resort witnessed the avalanche and went to the aid of the skiers. They found Mr. Sabathé thanks to his avalanche beacon and with the help of another witness, a doctor from Toulouse, attempted to resuccitate him but in vain. A team from High Mountain Police (PGHM) stationed at Pierrefitte Nestalas were also despatched by helicopter. The avalanche occurred a little after 1pm on the Pic de Sarrouyes (2,667 meters) close to the border with Spain. The party were properly equipped and said to be experienced mountaineers.

The website Kairn.com warned that a number of easy routes in the area can present danger, including the climbs to the Pic de Sarrouyes and Pic d’Estos. Meteo France had given the avalanche risk as 2 (Moderate) for the Haute-Bigorre border area today. The bulletin said snow levels were good to normal at low altitude, below average above 2000 meters. The report said that the last major snowfalls, dating from the 9-10 December, were generally well stabilized with little risk of accidental avalanche and just some small slabs on northern slopes in the frontier zones.

Increased Awareness Press & Radio

For the last few months one of our jobs has been finding more ways to increase awareness on how to, 'Have Fun & Be Safe' and provide our partners with the type of visibility they expect for their support. This quest has brought me in contact with some very interesting people. One is Daniel Elkan, shown here yesterday interviewing Fab Jolly who is a member of Team HAT and works as a pisteur (ski patrol) in Val d'Isère. Daniel has been commissioned to do an article on 'Fabulous Fab' for the Sunday Times. Daniel is also in the process of writing an article about off-piste awareness and HAT for Ski + Board Magazine.

On the radio side of things, Caroline Sayer from R' radio Méribel has been instrumental in helping HAT to educate people on what the definitions of the avalanche ratings (1 to 5) are. It's thank to Caroline and R' radio that we are on R' radio each morning in Méribel, Courchevel, La Plagne, Les Arcs and Tignes with avalanche rating info and off-piste tips. For a sample click here  Soon we will have each of these recorded avalanche rating definitions up on the HAT web site!

Mission Accomplished!

Just returned from a successful and enjoyable trip to Norway where I conducted an Avalanche Training session for the British Joint Services Mountain Training Centre (JSMTC ‘INDEFATIGABLE’) Combined Adventure Training Group - Winter Staff in Sjusjeon. The session included morning lectures and an afternoon in the field including avalanche transceiver training. The transceiver training was greatly enhanced by the assistance of Lt Col Dr. Peter Davis who also gave an excellent mountain medicine lecture at the end of the day.

A thank you to CSgt Uisdean MacDonald for recommending me for this role and for the whiskey during the staff social (probably why I look so blurry in the photo… but I’m not really that small it’s just that Uisdean is one of the biggest people I know!).

A big thank you also to Maj Kevin P Edwards, Col Paul Miller and Lt Col Simon Hall for being so accommodating upon my arrival and for being so precise with the logistics.

Kevin Edwards here discussing snow metamorphosis and avalanche science with others in the group.

I’m off now for our staff kick-off in Chamonix at the MBC at 6pm tomorrow the 16th and then through Méribel for a staff kick off at the Pub/Scotts at 7.30pm on the 19th. Not getting a huge amount of skiing in at the moment, but you can see what the HAT Team has been up to with Andreas’ and Janel’s most excellent off-piste up-dates over the last few days: click here!

pistehors.com reports an avalanche accident

The only comment that I would add to this report from David George atpistehors.com and the one from the Ski CLub of GB that I posted today is that I think that the weak layer of older snow (angular crystals and depth hoar) is what the avalanche slid on and what is contributing to at least some of the fairly acute instability that we are now experiencing in the Alps. This instability will increase with further accumulations that are predicted over the next few days especially above 2300 metres where there has not been enough humidity to settle the the weaker elements of the snowpack . Henry

'Backcountry boarders killed by avalanche in Southern France'

We have a report that two Italian backcountry snowboarders have been killed in France by an avalanche on the border with the Cuneo region. The climbers were Riccardo Dutto, 60 years and Marco Fabbri, 38 years, both residents of Cuneo and were well known through the specialist Italian website Le Fioca Ven Mola.

The slab avalanche occurred in the Gypière de l’Oronaye sector close to the Colle della Maddalena (Col de Larche) just inside France. The slide occurred at 2700 meters altitude on the Bec Du Lievre situated in the commune of San Dalmazzo. According to the rescue services the men were climbing with snowshoes with snowboards attached to their rucksacks with the aim of descending from the summit. Recent wind and fresh snow had formed fresh snow slabs. The alarm was raised when the men failed to return home on Monday night. Specialist rescue workers attached to the Gendarmerie in Digne were scrambled at 19h45. Marco Fabbri’s car was found on the French side of the col de Larche by police.

Rescue workers were able to find the missing men by following their tracks in the snow then signals from their Avalanche Beacons. The bodies were located at midnight buried under a two meters of snow. However the recovery was not possible until the following morning due to the risk of a secondary slide. This is the first fatal accident of the season in France and a reminder that conditions remain difficult across the Alps. The Police in Fribourg (CH) have confirmed that a ski tourer killed by an avalanche on the Tsermon (4/12/2007) was a French national.

An accident reported from the Ski Club of Great Britain web page.

I wouldn't be surprised if this avalanche slid on the weak layer of angular crystals and depth hoar that I speak about in my Ski diary report today (see below). Henry

An accident reported from the Ski Club of Great Britain web page:

First Swiss avalanche death
Wednesday 5 December 2007
A man was killed on Tuesday near Fribourg after being carried 200m down the mountain. It followed large snowfalls in the area.

Switzerland today
The Swiss man, aged between 30 – 40, was out skinning with friends. It's believed they triggered the avalanche themselves.
There had been around 40cm of fresh snow, but also some very strong winds that had built up large accumulations of snow.

Rescue workers arrived on the scene but the man was found dead some time later buried under 1 metre of snow.

The accident happened at 14.15 and the man was wearing a transceiver.

There is considerable risk across large parts of the Alps following all the recent snowfall and people are asked to be extremely cautious until the snow stabilises. The wind is reported to have been gusting up to 75km per hour in places making conditions difficult to read.

Snow, Wind and some Instability

It's great to see all this new snow! Apparently we haven't had this much in early December in the Northern French Alps, 30 to 60 cm at 2000 m, since 1998. It's a bit wind-blown (winds coming out of the west to north) and kind of humid today down below 2300, but I'm not complaining especially after last season! ... and it helps to stabilise the weak older layer of angular crystals/grains and depth hoar that developed during the cooler temps and clear skies last weak (see below for photo of us skiing in that fragile, now 'older' snow, last weekend). So below 2300 metres the snow may be heavier but it is helping to stabilise things. Above 2300 metres is different:

SOME INSTABILITY is now resulting due to this weak older layer of angular crystals/grains and depth hoar especially above 2300 metres and the new snow on top (winds have created significant accumulations of snow in some places and that is on this weak layer). Anyone who has been up the mountain in the northern French Alps on the 4th and 5th will have seen some recent slab avalanches especially above 2300. There already has been a number of natural and accidental avalanches to go along with the artificial ones set off by explosives over the last couple days especially on North East slopes. So you gotta watch out - we are - especially when it gets sunny again (tomorrow and then next Wednesday) and we can access more terrain. The weather is supposed to continue to be stormy with more snow on the way more or less continuously until Wednesday (with a clearing spell tomorrow).

I'm off to do a course in Norway for the British Joint Services Mountain Training Centre (Indefatigable) . So my next update may very well be from Norway. I'll be back in the Alps at the end of next week. In the mean time, 'Have Fun Be Safe'!

HAT Team Ski and Meeting

There's 15 members of the HAT Team here in Val d'Isère enjoying the skiing, doing talks and planning the winter with our technical director Alain Duclos amongst others. If you don't believe the skiing is excellent despite the lack of snow check out this photo and the photos in the album - more snow on the way over the next week!

Some nice light powder turns, but noticing that much of this nice snow is made up of faceted/angular grains which will not be good for the stability of the snowfalls predicted for this week because this will soon be the underlying layer. We'll see!