I know most of you aren't going to be out skiing in the mountains again until next season, but for those of you who are either out here now or will be soon, here is a quick update on what's happening and what's going to be happening in the Northern French Alps!
The conditions have been pretty good for spring skiing over the last few days with clear, cold/freezing nights down to 2000 metres following hot melting days. The off-piste has been kept in pretty good conditions (i.e. smooth spring snow slopes) since there haven't been too many people around to trash the snow by skiing these slopes too late and leaving ruts behind (for an understanding of what makes nice smooth spring snow condtions see my update on the melt-freeze layer on April 1 ) Otherwise, it should look like this when you ski it:
For the next few days: tomorrow is supposed to be clear in the morning then windy (out of S,SW), warm (max of 9° at 2000) and cloudy then snow showers in the evening. then Sunday is supposed to bring in snow especially around the Italian border (surprise!). Total snow 25 cm at 2500 m above 2000 m then more snow Sunday night as the winds move to westerly and the rain snow limit moves down below 2000 metres (another possible 40 cm along the border during the night!) and things begin to get cooler than average for the season. Clearing on Thursday. Each recent snowstorm has been followed by quite a bit of instability in certain areas especially on the lee side of ridges, passes and peaks. For more information on that see the Météo France avalanche forecast (you can always translate it on Google).
These updates will probably become less frequent as the season comes to a close and many of you are off doing other things..., but thanks for your interest during the season and please stay tuned for general HAT updates and other interesting things that we get up to during the off-season! All the best, Henry
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