The Mountain Echo

Spring weather rushed in early this past week as rain and freezing levels reached up to 3000 metres at times over the weekend of the 20th – a dip in temperatures came in on Monday night, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then big winds started Weds morning out of the South East that continued along with another temperature spike and freezing levels back up to 3000 metres on Thursday. Then a big drop in temps, continued winds and snow at the end of the week (winds out of the West/North)! Snow showers will continue through the weekend, with rain/snow limit down to around 1200 metres. Early this coming week: snow showers will continue with some clearing spells and temps fluctuating – the snow/rain limit will oscillate between 1200-1800 until mid week according to the forecast.

Snow Quality and Stability
In sum, this past week was very complicated, but sometimes simple. For example, early on in the week, when it was raining, some really nice snow was to be found.. up higher than the rain/snow limit! But then the lack of freezing at night made it hard (and dangerous) to take advantage of the spring snow until Tuesday and Wednesday due to freezing at night. I found some good fresh snow (sprinkles from Monday night) on North facing slopes on Tuesday onwards, see vids of us skiing it on Weds 24 March if you don’t believe me! on www.getoffpiste.com There was also some good spring snow in places if you looked, used your common sense and weren’t afraid of making mistakes: sinking in wet snow from time to time and rattling across frozen snow that was gouged out by people sinking in the day before. For a good summary of what the snow quality was like this past week, see “Wayne’s Daily Diary’ on the web site: www.alpineexperience.com

Snow Quality: The rise in temperatures early this past week along with the lack of freeze at night i.e. continued high temperatures through the night, led to a big cycle of avalanching; the rapid rise in temperatures after such a cold spell, along with a very unstable layer of faceted snow grains at the bottom of the snowpack (see video on my blog www.getoffpiste.com on 19 March) made this one of the most active avalanching cycles we’ve seen for a while here in the Northern French Alps.

In fact so many avalanches were observed that many people questioned why the avalanche rating was dropped down from 4 over the weekend to 3 early in the week (see my blog www.getoffpiste.com for info and a debate on that). The net effect, however, has been a real stabilisation of the snowpack thanks to the rain and the warmth followed by lower temps. Those places that did not get much of the warming and the humidification/rain, still have an exposed cohesionless base in the snowpack – this snowpack was not subject to much melting and freezing on slopes that are high and North above 2600 metres or so.

Tips for this coming week
The snowpack has stabalised but, high North facing slopes of 2600 metres plus, that haven’t been skier compacted, will be something to watch out for because of the somewhat exposed, fragile cohesionless layer of snow (see my discussion on Snow Stability above) will end up under any new snow that we’ve received at the end of this week or weekend. 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.

Snow Quality and Stability
In sum, there has been some great snow out there (soft snow; soft & hard wind blown and even a bit of smooth spring) IF you were willing to look for it and walk for it. Experienced off-piste skiers have had a great time over the past week.

Snow Quality: The snow on North’ish faces has been a combination of cold wind-blown snow that is pretty hard/smooth/chalky (some breakable crust here and there); ‘pisted off-piste’ from skier traffic where there’s easy access from lifts; and, away from high off piste skier traffic, spowder and/or ‘deconsolidating’ snow that is ‘lossening up’ into an agreeable granular type soft snow (the powder and loosening granular old snow is due to the cold temperatures especially at night over the last two weeks). Some of the melt-freeze on South facing slopes has brought a nice smooth spring snow ‘transformé’ on lower altitudes (below 2400 m) mainly on steep slopes, but most South’ish facing slopes have developed a nasty breakable crust that will need a good amount of new snow on top in order not to feel it under-foot.

Snow Stability: The cold powder and loosening up of the snowpack due to cold temps on the North’ish facing slopes has accentuated the potential for high instability once we get new snow – there continued to be quite a few accidental avalanches over the past two weeks on steep North facing slopes in the Northern French Alps even as the avalanche rating went down to 2. The snowpack is surprisingly hollow in a lot of places on North slope aspects! South’ish facing slopes have been very stable after a cold night, but have become very unstable in places once the sun has warmed them up. With the predicted warming and rain above 1800 metres, these slopes could become very unstable during warming phases and especially rain events.

Note: One of the biggest risks these past two weeks has been falling and sliding down hard, smooth and steep slopes. A number of very bad falls and injuries were reported last week – this may pick up again especially if we don’t get much snow this week.

Tips for this coming week
If and when it snows, I’ll be heading high and North, but I’ll be thinking about the weak layers that are still persisting up there (and you should too!) especially if and when I head out onto any steep North facing slopes.

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.

This week I am goint to talk about how to manage risk when off piste. Last week we had a great day of “The Talk on the Snow” in Les Arcs with a group of enthusiastic seasonnaires from The Pink House in Bourg St Maurice yesterday
Why you still need to careful when it is avalanche risk level 2.

We were reminded of three ways to manage risk – even level 2 risk:

1. ski a similar slope aspect and altitide before heading off into the back country
2. Check out your ideas with the piste patrol
3. Do some simple tests with a small snowpit

The group from The Pink House had previously had a private talk and the opportunity to look at the online talk, the day out in glorious sunshine and moderate temperatures allowed us to go into much more depth on Avalanche awareness. We also managed to fit in some riding where the snow conditions allowed us.

The risk was only level 2 and the obvious off-piste looked pretty tracked out, so the general impression was that it was safe. However by following the HAT code of practice we were able to avoid going into difficult snow conditions whihc could have proved dangerous and we discovered that in the untracked areas there were still dangers and risks.

The group had two different ideas on where to go to find great snow. Go off the back of the Grand Col (was good there last week). Go down the Lanchettes where it is North Facing and the snow holds well. But to check this we did two things.

First we skied a slope that was the same aspect and altitude as the Grand Col and discoverd it was pretty cruddy!

Second we asked the piste patrol about the Lanchettes and they told us the wind last night had really blasted the slope and it would be no fun and not that safe.

Then we went on some NE facing untracked slopes (see www.getoffpiste.com ) but went very carefully since the risk is level 2 and that tells you that an increased load on a steep slope can trigger a release (especially NE to NW facing – see bulletin)

When we dug the snowpit we found that there was a top layer of 20cm that was prone to shearing off. (so we were right to go one at a time and use islands of safety.PS if you would like a private talk in your chalet plus a day out doing the “The Talk on the Snow” and beeper training. We have availability this season and can do the whole package for €575 for a group of 6.

This includes a COPE certificate