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

Snow report April 3, 2008

We should have spring snow (melting & freezing) conditions by now but the temperatures remain cool & it just keeps snowing! The forecast is for continued snow off and on through Thursday. The temps look like they will remain fairly low too, at least until Wednesday. This is not typical April weather, but then again March was more like a typical February!

Snowpack Quality & Stability

In general the snowpack is stabilising - with the snow from March settling and becoming denser. However, within the newer top layers of new snow there is some instability and that instability will increase with more snow. True that lots of little snowfalls spread out in time allow the new snow to settle and stabilise much better than one big snowfall that comes down all at once, but once the sum total of new little snowfalls add up to a lot of snow, there can be some danger: especially due to wind loading and layers from the successive snowfalls that don’t bond well to each other. We’ve seen a medium sized avalanche triggered with a fracture estimated at 30/50 cm on a North slope on Wednesday 2 April. We believe this slab avalanche was due to the instability caused by snow transported by the Southerly winds (Foehn / Lombarde winds) on Sunday 30 March. Since then, the winds have been coming out of the North to West and are forecast to continue until Sunday/Monday 6&7 April when winds are forecast to start coming out of the Southwest (accompanied by continued snow showers). So there are currently a few surface slabs out there, usually at altitude (above 2200/2400 meters), which are not bonding all that well to new snow layers below them. These surface slabs will continue to grow with new snowfalls and wind (and the quality of skiing in those areas will probably increase too!). This situation will probably lead to some larger unstable slabs developing over the next week or so especially on leeward slopes (and any area protected from the wind).

Tip of the week:

While keeping in mind the risk of coming across unstable slabs on leeward slopes, for the best snow stick to northerly slopes (Northwest to Northeast). The difference between South’ish’ facing slopes and North’ish’ facing slopes is enormous at this time of year especially once the sun comes out. The South facing slopes get the sun’s heat even before the sun comes out which makes the snow heavier and more unstable. Plus the snow is not nice to ski in, ‘slushy powder’. AND you spoil the potential for good spring snow skiing (more on melt-freeze spring snow transformation next week!).

‘Ride Hard Ride Safe’!

Henry

PS We’re still doing lots of transceiver training at the moment in Val d’Isère: 35 euros for saisonaires for a full afternoon of coaching, timed searches, basic rescue procedures & a waterproof reference card. Call Jamie on 06 23 05 75 09

What a Talk is & Why go to a Talk

Why Go to an Off-piste Adventure Talk

Download a higher resolution 'Why Go to an Off-piste Adventure Talk' video here:

Download HAT_Why_go_to_a_talk.mpg

What is a Talk? Chick it out here: Download a higher resolution 'What is a Talk' video here:

Still snowing, still dreaming

It has snowed another 10 cm or more in some places which has freshened things up & made for some very nice skiing even tho visibility not very good. tomorrow will b tremendous as a sunny day is forecast!

Another Great Day

HATadventures course team: Michael, Morten & Soeren. This photo sums it all up (see below for vids). Got 10-15 cm last night, sun today and it's snowing again!!

 

Snowpack Update

What an amazing couple of weeks. Rarely have I seen so much snow and such a stable snowpack at the same time.

The snows that are coming now (end of week of March 24) are supposed to be fairly light, in terms of accumulations and in consistency, throughout the Northern French Alps and surrounding areas.

Current Stability

There have been quite a few accidental slab releases over the last few days (Météo France has reported several each day) most without consequence probably because the slabs have not been all that big and/or the people were able to ride out or weren’t taken too far. I have seen and heard of a few slabs triggered at distances of 10 metres or so on slopes facing North East to East – which makes sense since the winds have been mostly coming out of the West & North West and this will continue through the weekend. The winds aren’t supposed to be as strong for this weekend and that is a relief!

Tip of the week:

Watch out for slab instability (& releases) as a direct result of very recent wind loading on slopes and in general areas that were/are protected from wind in recent storms (these are very often East’ish’ slopes, but not always!!). Some of the very recent slab releases have had fractures at the top (or crown walls) of up to 70 cm. So, despite the exceptional stability of all this new snow, I’m still being very careful as I enter into steep areas of nice smooth fresh white snow.

‘Ride Hard Ride Safe’!

Henry

Henry

PS We’re doing lots of transceiver training at the moment in Val d’Isère: 35 euros for saisonaires for a full afternoon of coaching, timed searches, basic rescue procedures & a waterproof reference card. Call Jamie on 06 23 05 75 09

Slabs Triggered from a distance...

there were quite a few slabs triggered from a 10 metre distance observed by colleagues and me today. Also, natural, artificial & other accidental in Savoie & Haute Savoie mainly small for the moment. This slope under the Mt Blanc chair in Val d'Isère is facing North East. The wind has been mostly coming out of the North West (although is supposed to change to South briefly tomorrow then back to North West through West for Thursday on through the weekend). This slab, a direct result of very recent wind loading, exemplifies what is in store for the next few days (and so does the distance triggering). Only I think the instability will grow with the continued wind loading and new snow accumulations. The avalanche activity has been relatively calm over the last 10 days or so, but I think the instability could pick up with all this new snow and wind over the next few days. The slab in this photo and the way it was triggered is telling us something.

It just won't stop!

Over a metre of snow has fallen in the last 4 days and it's now snowing again... 15-30 cm is supposed to come down in the next 16 hours or so with strong winds out of the North and Northwest in the French Alps

snowing again!

in fact it is dumping. 60cm of light snow in the last 12 hours! If you don't believe it, check these vids out (photos coming soon Mike!)

Epic Day

.... with HAT & Dan Egan's X-Team Ski Clinics

Here's Richard True setting a good example as usual. For more photos see 'Skiing with HAT & Ski Clinics' (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the right date on the photos!). For Vids see below

 

Waist Deep!

Skiing with Dan Egan's X-Team Ski Clinics It's been snowing pretty much non stop for two days now. Here's Cathy making a few turns... and disappearing!