But whats the best advice* for those upcoming conditions in terms of avalanche risk

Strictly sticking to the piste, you should have no cause for concern.

Before leaving the patrolled/controlled areas either hire a suitably qualified person or:

– Do an Avalance Awareness Course
– Read the local avalanche reports and be able to interpret the detail
– Carry beacon, shovel and probe and know how to use them.

Initial reports are that other parties in the Val Veny area started searching for victims. You are not just carrying backcountry gear for yourself but for the people you are with etc …

Initial risk flags are:

– Recent snowfall
– Rising Temps
– Wind

All three were prevalent today here in Courmayeur.

I’d assume / hope that they won’t open pistes until they’ve controlled the surrounding terrain? I’m very much North American and so in that case you’d be good if you remain between the markers…

Having said that on powder days I do wear my beacon.

Otherwise as per Digby but I’d add….

Most avalanches occur in the 30-40Deg range (Red / Black) so blues probably lower risk.
Think consequence – smaller slopes generally lower consequence but also can you be carried into trees / over cliffs etc.

I’d assume / hope that they won’t open pistes until they’ve controlled the surrounding terrain?

Absolutley. They’re pretty meticulous about all that as youd expect.
As I said, I dont stray from the piste more than a few yards, but what I was trying to get at, is what is the mechanism that makes the current and forecast conditions ones to be exceptionally wary about.

I don’t doubt an off piste avalanche course is one of those things “that’s nice to know”, but in reality, 90% of piste riders transfer that part of mountain awareness onto the resort operators.

Ah – well then I’d say as per Digby that any one of rising temps, recent snowfall or moderate wind speeds is an indicator of rising avalanche risk. It sounds like you’ve got all 3 😯 so extra caution.

Looking at the way the snowpack is now pre-fall, temp variations and wind blown snow which will have varying moisture levels. Who knows but that amount of fresh with fluctuating temps will create an interesting set of layers.

cheers Mark, useful
M

Heading out to Whistler again on Wednesday so credit cards are coming with….just in case?

You’ll be pleased to know we’re just heading into another storm cycle, with the FL near the valley floor. It had gotten a bit hard and icy recently but the last few days have freshened everything up nicely and it’s to continue for the next week or so by the looks of it.

Finally hit this line today. Wanted to do it for a while, but always looked a bit intimidating. Actually not too bad once you got through the rocks poking out at the top!

Actually hard and icy or just icy by Whistler standards 8)

I took a visiting Whistler local to the front side of Louise and he claimed the blue end of the mens DH was more terrifying for him than a double black in Whistler 😆

@whatnobeer…thanks for the update, that’s good to know. Where is that line then?

Actually hard and icy or just icy by Whistler standards

I took a visiting Whistler local to the front side of Louise and he claimed the blue end of the mens DH was more terrifying for him than a double black in Whistler

Ha! Actually hard and icy. You might of been ok with some narrow skis with edges, but I was stuggling on my Q-labs. Higher up ok but down the lower half of Peak to Creek was like an ice rink. A lot of people going sideways and not many turns :p

@whatnobeer…thanks for the update, that’s good to know. Where is that line then?

That’s the high entrance to Sapphire bowl, skiers right from the top of Spankys Ladder.

Know where you are, thanks.

Stoner – how’s your French? It’s pretty easy to understand even with my sporadic French and highlights the main dangers: French Avi Report – PDS

Here’s the Swiss one – this one is available in English – if you click the right area it gives you a nice background on the snowpack and risks: Swiss Avi Report

And here’s a really good avalanche basics guide: Ortovox Avalanche Info

Stoner main advice I’d give you is get some off piste tuition ! Make the most of fresh snow to get some trunes in along side the Blues and flatter parts of the reds, need to work on your smooth linked carving turns on the piste too.

Avalanche danger in-bounds is pretty limited, the resorts do a good job of keeping it that way. If on the slack country just watch for steeper slopes (eg 30 degrees) either when you are on them or if they are up above you.

Conditions in Sainte Foy looked amazing this week for White Room’s back-country / touring week

whats the closest/easist resort to get to from geneva for a day? public transport?

got a work trip that involves flying in/out of geneva and would be easy to tack a day or so on and get up on some snow?

chamonix? samoens/flaine area?

igm – Member
Out in Denver. I can see snow in the foothills, but all work – no time to visit the slopes.

Sorry to gloat, but in Heathrow waiting for my flight to Denver. Go me. Sorry.

the very closest is Crozet (the main base is Lélex), which is on the outskirts

https://goo.gl/maps/T1ySn7io3o92

or have a look here

https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Airports/Ski_Resorts_Near_Geneva_Map.html

Old school – just came back in through Heathrow

Jam bo – closest is an hour, go where snow is best Les Gets/La Clusaz/Chamonix/Megeve/… Verbier is 1hr 40 mins and less to lift at Les Chables in the valley. TBH the pickup/car rental can take longer than the drive sometimes 😐

Just watched this Chatel Avalanche film, from 2015 not seen before. Worth the 12 mins imho. Will comment later.

Watch: Bone-chilling avalanche rescue in Châtel, France

On-piste on Saturday !

Nice! Looks deep!

We had fun too. Very much off piste though.

Edukator and WhatNo – both very nice. Stevo from WhiteRoom says its really dumping in Ste Foy 🙂

my girlfriend loved it in val d’isere. i spent the week with her on greens and every now and then riding down myself. was great fun and i’d go aagin 🙂

Very interesting avalanche video! Thanks for posting jambalaya – I hadn’t seen that before.

My initial thoughts were:
It very much showed how ‘panic’ can occur in such intense situations.

But his practice/training with his beacon paid off as without it he would have most likely struggled to locate Denis within 15 minutes.

The transition from ‘coarse search’ to ‘fine search’ and pin-pointing Denis and getting the shovel & probe out and used was excruciating to watch but I guess quite understandable given the panic/relief of the situation – just goes to reinforce the ‘mantra’ … practice, practice, practice …

Denis was very fortunate to have an air pocket.

@ whatnobeer – that looks fantastic … gotta love tree riding in BC! 8)

Digby. Agreed, no beacon no finding his mate imho. Interested me that the steep pitch which I imagine triggered it immediately went into a fairly shallow pitch (on video of course could be steeper than it appered) which then slid a long way taking him with it. Also incredibly lucky his mate had visual on him and without that I certanly would have watsed a lot of time searching even with the beacon (it was a long slide), he was able to ski down with a decent idea of where his mate was.

Jedi (as I said on the pm) I love it there, something for everyone on and off the slopes. The off-piste is fabulous from easy to ‘kin hard and a lot of it very accessible via a short hike or even off the lifts. We’ve done the favourite resorts list before on here but mine are Val/St Anton/Verbier/Jackson Hole in US.

on video of course could be steeper than it appered

Yeah – it never ceases to amaze me how 40+ degree slopes look like 30+ degree slopes on a PoV camera … there were some pretty big blocks of snow there as well – some that had continued to slide on the surface after the much of it had stopped.

I’m guessing it was the shock loading of him hucking the cliff that triggered what looked like quite a deep but ‘dry’ slab – it certainly didn’t appear to have ‘set’ like concrete as I’ve seen happen:- The snow they were digging Denis out of still had a slight powdery consistency.

Also incredibly lucky his mate had visual on him

100% agreed jambalya – although I would like to think they were skiing one at a time as a precaution rather than luck …

Interestingly (for some perhaps), the avalanche in Courmayeur last week that killed 3 and injured 5, took place in an area where multiple groups totaling about 18 people ended up aggregating – highlighting the difficulties in ‘group management’ in the Backcountry. It was described as being like a ‘battle zone’ … 😥

I also note that the fatalities in Italy last week seemingly received much less press coverage and media attention that the recent Tignes avalanche victims.

I wonder if the mainstream media are becoming ‘hardened’ to the increasing numbers of fatalities in the mountains?

The day after the incident loads of people (myself included) were taking the same traverse off piste to access the ‘slack-country’ as if nothing had happened – rather like when people slow down for a brief time after passing an RTA … and then carry on speeding

Sitting on the plane in Turin feeling totally wasted. Serre Chevalier was all I remembered and much more. Just a fantastic playground where the pistes play second to the rest of the rest of the area which is just amazing terrain for fun skiing. Did masses of off piste stuff but this morning we were stuck above Briancon as the lifts across to Chantemerle were closed. The piste had a foot of powder on it, so just shattered after five hours of that. #specialplace

Interesting comments Digby. Looked quite fresh (from the digging) so I am guessing it was a lot of fresh snow on a frozen base and the slab slid off as you say from the “huck in”. Anyone else ?

Happy times Rockape 🙂

Just a fantastic playground where the pistes play second to the rest of the rest of the area which is just amazing terrain for fun skiing

Don’t tell everyone! 8)

Anyone else ?

No avi expert so not much to offer on top of Digby’s more informed comments – but being STW I will anyway..

My main thought was that the rescuer did a good job traversing across the debris, shouting for contact, calling for help and paying attention to his beeper.

Strikes me it might be a lot harder to navigate a debris field on a snowboard – so that’d be more time wasted clipping out and trying to walk while doing the coarse search.

From an Armchair Expert, the shovelling looked a bit chaotic and almost got the guy in the face (aren’t you meant to start shovelling from below the victim?) but totally understandable in the heat of the moment. Must be a terrifying thing for everyone involved. Main thing is they got the guy out and he was ok.

Rescuer did a great job IMHO. I thought he took a bit of a risk traversing across to the avalanche from where he was watching from. But he had no choice really.
Did well to shout for help, “call 112” (Every day’s a school day, I didn’t know that)
Painfull to watch it all unfold, extra helpers didn’t have shovels. He did organise them well though, getting them to clear out behind him and to look out for secondary slides.
Good watch, thanks for posting.

Another one. Tignes.

🙁

Off to Les Gets on Sat for a week so snow is well timed.
Will be a powderkeg though with bad base, fluctuting temps and then a variable temp heavy snowfall. Tignes/Val etc and all the steep resorts will have 4-5 avi risks for a while. Looking at forward temps it will be v risky. I see theres a reportin Tignes already – be careful careful out there folks, likely some desperation as such a sparse snow season as well which may cloud judgement.

Big slide in Tignes, came across a blue piste but confirmed that no one buried. Very lucky!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39192167 Yup no-one hurt.

That video was fascinating.

NZCol – Member
Off to Les Gets on Sat for a week so snow is well timed.

Flying out from Edinburgh on Sat for a week in Les Gets too. Cheers Stoner for the previous transfer recommendation, booked with Alp Nav in the end. Massively looking forward to it esp with the recent snow, though as above can see avi risks remaining high for a while.

DougD – we’re going from Glasgow for some reason with Ski Famille.

Big slide in Tignes, came across a blue piste but confirmed that no one buried.

That means I can look forward to another ear-bashing from my FiL about putting his grandchildren in “unnecessary danger” by taking them skiing. 🙄

Interesting that the BBC report says “The avalanche risk at Tignes was said to be four on a scale of five, and part of the resort had been closed to skiers” but doesn’t clarify if that closure included the piste that was hit.

French sites say piste and lift was open at the time. 4/5 in Tignes is BAD.

NZCol – which chalet you in?