HENRY’S AVALANCHE TALK

SNOW REPORT

Brought to you by Henry’s Avalanche Talk www. henrysavalanchetalk. com

More unsettled weather before settling down a bit from Tuesday in the Northern French Alps! It’s been an epic week of off-piste skiing, with arguably the best snow conditions of the whole season! Following some resort level rain on Thursday, we just had another night of fresh snowfall so we wake on Friday with avalanche danger rating 4 again. Chardonnet couloir, Tignes on Tuesday. This was a sunny day following 20cm or so of fresh snowfall. Two off-piste skiers were caught by an avalanche that they triggered on a second lap of the same route they’d taken 20 minutes previously. One of them was flown to hospital in an unconscious state after being buried for 10 minutes.

The week ahead promises to be very similar, and will be another tricky one as far as avalanche danger goes. Temperatures will be yo-yoing again, with significant snowfall expected (sometimes rain) accompanied by wind.

Recent history of the snowpack There’s been a lot of very obvious avalanche activity this week. You can spot it from every chairlift. Much of this has been in the form of direct avalanches (naturally occurring), but some has been skiertriggered too.

There are a variety of off-piste conditions at the moment. We currently have some great powder snow conditions, light and fluffy in places (especially the colder high north’ish facing slopes), in others densified by the wind, but very skiable. With more fresh snowfall due next week, at least above 1800m or so, we’re hoping for more great off-piste skiing conditions, at least some days, next week. After any substantial fresh snowfall we’ll, as always, be choosing low slope angles, <30° (the steepest part of a red run) to start with, and keeping a wary eye out for any signs of recent avalanche activity. Sadly (but predictably) sunny days after fresh snowfall this week have seen a ‘powder frenzy’ with the off-piste being rapidly tracked out with little/no regard for safety. There have been many skiertriggered avalanches/slides this week, most of them thankfully without serious consequences. There was, however, a serious avalanche accident in the With all the recent snowfall, and more expected next week, we’ll continue to see increased avalanche activity. Any rainfall will make the snowpack heavier and lead to potentially very large natural avalanches occurring. There are large snow accumulations on leeward slopes. These areas could easily be triggered by the weight of skiers passing by. There’s also that weak layer in isolated places above 2700 m on the more shady N facing slopes and on less-travelled routes. Check out what the avalanche danger ratings mean. What is the current avalanche risk in the Northern French Alps/Savoie? As we write, the avalanche risk is 4/5. As we predicted last week, avalanche activity has been both spontaneous and skier triggered. This will continue to be true with each fresh snowfall. For any specific points about snow stability, you need to check the daily avalanche bulletins, particularly when any fresh snow comes.

What does this mean for off-piste skiers and snowboarders? Steep slopes with terrain traps beneath them are always going to be particularly at risk. As we reported last week, if we receive 75 cm to a metre of new snow (which can also mean accumulations of windtransported snow), this can produce some very large avalanches due to the increasing weight of snow (‘load’ in scientific terminology) pushing through to old instability in the form of some isolated old weak layers which still exist, especially in areas above 2500m. The best way for you to keep track of snow stability (which is even difficult for the experts) is to look out for evidence of avalanche activity. Where is most at risk at the moment? Steep slopes with fresh snow on them and terrain traps beneath them are always going to be particularly at risk. Particularly beware of slopes above 2500/2700m, which didn’t benefit from the solidifying effect of the rain’s humidification and subsequent refreezing. SUNDAY 8: In the morning: plentiful sun in the mountains all day but with high altitude clouds at the end of the day. Maximum temperatures: -5°C at 2000m, -7°C at 3000m. Isotherm 0°C: 2200m. Wind at 2000m: NW 10 km/h. Wind at 3000m: N 40 km/h then NW 20/30 km/h. Night from Sunday to Monday: light snow, rain/snow limit around 1000m, 10 cm in the massifs. MONDAY 9: Grey and cool weather, with some snow forecast. Rain/snow limit around 900m, 10 cm in the mountains. Lull at the end of the day. TUESDAY 10: Many clouds. Quite mild, isothermal 0°C around 2300m. Rainfall uncertain, snow around 2000m, 10 cm to 2500m, to be confirmed. WEDNESDAY 11: sunny and mild, a few scattered clouds. Photo Credit: Wayne Watson 33

How does the forecast look for the coming week? Looks like the weather will start to settle a bit from Tuesday or Wednesday next week. We have been in very unsettled weather which has produced fantastic snow conditions.

SATURDAY 7: Calm, with some sun and some Cumulus clouds. Maximum temperatures: -5°C at 2000m, -12°C at 3000m. Isotherm 0°C: 900 then 1500m. Wind at 2000m: N 10/20 km/h. Wind at 3000 m: N 40km/h. THURSDAY 12: fairly generous sunshine, cloudy periods in the afternoon. Light rain at night (flakes from 1500/1800 m).

FRIDAY 13: sunny spells then good weather. Tip of the week This week’s tip is the same as last week. Avalanche expert, Alain Duclos, from dataavalanche.org says: “The best clue about avalanche danger is avalanches!!” …. or ‘recent avalanche activity’ as we call it at HAT.

As the mid season slump hits, many find that their financial situation is sub optimal. Here are some pro tips for getting those stacks back up.

The quickest way to get hard cash is to sell your belongings. Just think, do you really need three ski jackets? You could try the seasonaire page but it is full of people trying to sell things. What you really ought to be doing is creating a pop up shop on the bus to display your wares. Do it towards the end of the ski day when it is busiest to have the maximum amount of potential customers.

It can be a very shocking revelation that those weird pieces of metal that you sometimes get given by shop keepers actually have worth. Gather up all the shrapnel that is lying about your apartment, check all of your pockets and even keep eyes out on the streets. Look real closely and you will see that these coins have little numbers on them, this tells you what they are worth to the places that accept them in exchange for beer.

Many people are holding back dollars as they know that landlords out here eat security deposits for breakfast. You may have replaced your broken plates and you may have rationed your heating to the minute but it doesn’t matter as the landlords know that you can’t do anything about it. Given that you are getting little to none of your security deposit back, you may as well just flog the microwave anyway.

We almost weren’t going to share this one at the risk of it being banned as it is in Chinese Pizza Huts - but it is just too good. When you go to any of the restaurants on the mountain with a salad bar, they give you small plates to fill. What you want to