The Mountain Echo

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

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 traveled 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 traveled 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.

This past week’s weather can be summarized as unpredictable even for the weather service forecasts. The key was that you could get very good skiing if you got out there even when it looked bad and you’re thinking, “this is not going to be a very good day’s skiing!”. When people asked me if the skiing was going to be good the following day, I should have just said yes, yes and yes. Because there was enough new snowfall in each little storm that when the sun came out from behind the clouds for the odd brief spell, the skiing was great! Even when you couldn’t see much, the snow was very nice a lot of the time (unless you were on a steep south facing slope and dealing with the old crust underneath). The only problem was that you never really new when the snow-showers would come or if the sun would poke through or not.. and that’s why you just had to be out there in order to be ‘lucky’ enough to get the visibility to enjoy the fresh snow.

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. Well traveled off piste runs in-resort are fairly well packed down by 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 that weak layer (and what’s on top) in mind. You can keep up-to-date on this by visiting our blog on www.getoffpiste.com and looking for the avalanche forecast translation in the left column or if you can read French on: www.meteo-france.com >Montagne>Bulletins Avalanches.

I should point out that I have released a few small surface slabs of fresh snow on fairly steep convexities this past week. They were small (but big enough to knock you off your feet) because we didn’t have big accumulations when I set them off (which was on Wednesday). Remember that bigger accumulations will mean bigger slab potential! .. which brings us to the Tips for the week.

Tips for this coming week
This coming week looks like the same thing as last week in terms of weather: a series of snow storms coming through at some time or another (at least for the beginning of the week). So my advice is to just get out there and you’ll be lucky with the weather when it clears for a moment! And yes, I will reinforce my approach to skiing every fresh powder day: I start on low angle slopes and take into consideration everything that we present in our talks – again a summary is on my blog entry of 14 January on www.getoffpiste.com

Have Fun and Be Safe!