off-piste

Fri 28 Feb 2020 - 11:21

Henry's Avalanche Talk

Unsettled weather and plenty of snowfall in the Northern French Alps next week !

After a mild sunny start to the current week, it’s now back to winter with a vengeance! From Tuesday night, we had another period of extremely stormy weather, with howling NW winds and snowfall and much lower temperatures. 198 km/hr gusts were recorded at the Pissaillas glacier above Le Fornet (Val d’Isère) on Wednesday afternoon!

After Thursday’s snowfall, things we have a sunny Friday morning and avalanche danger rating 4 with fresh wind blown snow on all aspects. meaning it is easy for a skier to trigger an avalanche on all aspects and over the weekend before it gets very unsettled again from Monday to the rest of next week. A lot more snow is on its way!

Off-piste skiing conditions are very varied at the moment, largely due to the wind. Snow’s been blown all over the mountain, causing some deep drifting to occur, and some very bare areas where the snow’s been scoured off altogether. Despite poor visibility and strong winds, thanks to lower temperatures and fresh snow, we advise you to wrap up warm and get out there. There are some fantastic fresh light powder snow conditions to be found if you brave the elements!

With more fresh snow expected next week, we’re looking forward to some fantastic off-piste skiing conditions, although we’ll be choosing our 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.

Photo by Wayne Watson