Henry's Avalanche Talk, Avalanche awareness, Off piste skiing, snow reports, snow conditions, Val d'Isere, Tignes

Grand Vallon

The victim was killed instantly, suffering from a broken neck.  This shows us that for some people, even with transceiver, shovel and probe poles, there is nothing than can be done.  That said, it is vital that everybody in an off piste group has all three pieces of equipment, has trained with them and plans never to use them!

Fatality in the Grand Vallon

This avalanche was set off accidentally (by a skier or skiers) in the Grand Vallons (Val d'Isere) today. The slope is West facing, around 2,600 meters and around 35 degrees gradient.

This slab avalanche was released by a skier or skiers because of the weak layer that is present just now. There was definitely one fatality, although I also heard reports of three deaths.This is all we know for now but we will keep you updated as we find out more details.

It is interesting to note how many tracks had been laid down lower down before the avalanche was triggered.

The attached photograph was taken from town, but still gives an idea of the size of this slide.


Jamie Robertson (HAT presenter)

www.PeakPhotographics.com

Grand Vallon Avalanche

Avalanche released just under peak on left in sun - triggered by skiers at 2600 metres approx, West face at approx 4 pm. at least one victim in serious condition - more to come later

Avalanche Accident January 1, 2009, Val d'Isère: Fornet Galcier

Occurred at approximately 12pm at 3000 metres on a Southwest facing slope. Slope steepness about 35°. Victim triggered avalanche and slid with it, but was not buried (just skies etc buried). Crown looked about 30-45 cm from a distance - see the middle of the 3rd & 4th photo below for crown in middle of image  (click on image to enlarge in web browser). The victim was taken about 150 metres and is in image below in lower right hand side.

(Photo just below) I was riding up the 'pays desert' teleski in Fornet Glacier secteur of Val d'Isère. I saw a person heading to a steep suspect slope in front of me. I got my phone out and took a the photo of him/her (see photo below).. The eventual vicitim is on top middle part of image just above small, thin, long, rock outcropping in upper middle part of photo (click on photo to enlarge in browser).. 

  (photo just below) the lift kept pulling me up the hill and out of site of the slope and the vicitm, but I kept the phone/camera ready and.. sure enough... the avalanche came flying down into view of my iPhone - image below in middle (again click on photo to enlarge in browser).

  

(Photos 3&4 below) Overview of accident area in images below (crown is in centre of each image and vicitms are 150 metres or more in lower right hand side of image). Top of Pays dessert teleski in lower left corner and top of Cascade lift in upper left in image just below:

  
 There's been several accidents in the Norther French Alps over the last few days see http://pistehors.com especially due in large part to a significant depth hoar layer. The skiing has been great (these are tracks from my group this morning below) over the last week with intermittent sun, snow (some rain at low altitudes), clouds and the odd clearing. I'm just sticking to low angle slopes and the rare times when I've gone a bit steep.. trying to take all the precautions: one at a time, safe areas to stop in, avoiding terrain traps etc.

 

Have fun, be safe in this new year!

Henry
   

More New Snow for the New Year – Is it safe out there?!

It just keeps on snowing and there is no end in sight. See the latest picture from John at YSE

 

 

We are expecting some brief breaks in the weather which will create fantastic powder opportunities.  The recent mild weather has brought down the avalanche risk a little.  The risk factor was changing between level 3 and level 4, now it is switching between level 3 and level 2.  Temperatures will fall again this weekend and the refreeze is expected to consolidate the snow pack a bit.  Just keep an eye on the bulletins

Recent Avalanche Accidents

Maybe not the happiest note for a Happy New Year since tragic accidents are always just that - tragic.  But we can at least try and learn from the analysis of what happened and help us and our friends to understand the risks as well.

 

The reports of three recent incidents are discussed in some detail on Piste Hors (see lniks below.  When reading these analyses, please be careful to distinguish between speculation on the art of the writer and the known fact of what happened.  Some writers have a tendency to assume things when the little is actually known about what happened.

 

I have been reminded of three very simple themes that we need to remeber when considering going off piste

 

1.  Never ever, ever, EVER go the wrong side of the piste poles when skiing alone.

 

http://pistehors.com/news/forums/viewthread/423/

 

This report is of an unlucky British man aged 44 who was found close to the Solonges piste in La Tour.  It is unclear exactly what happened, he may not have intended to go off piste, he may not even have been caught in an avalanche.  But he strayed from the piste, something happened and he never made it home.

 

We cannot over emphasise how even a small excursion off the side of the piste creates huge risks if you are alone.  The slightest fall can cause you to be out of sight and you may never be found.  Whereas on the piste between the piste poles, another skier of piste patrol will locate you before the end of the day.

 

Remember you are off piste as soon as you go the other side of the piste pole and doing this when you are alone creates a serious risk

 

2.  Always - we mean ALWAYS ensure everyone has beeper, shovel and probe.

 

http://pistehors.com/news/forums/viewthread/412/

 

A French skier from Limoges has been killed on the Swiss side of the border while skiing off piste near the Tour-Vallorcine ski area. The skier was caught with two other people who were equipped with beacons. They remained on the surface of the slide and were rescued. The skier who died was not equipped with a beacon and was buried by the slide. The skiers were in the bowl des Jeurs accessed from the Vallorcine lift system. The area is known for avalanches.

 

3.  Read the bulletins EVERY DAY to find out about where the risks exist. 

 

http://pistehors.com/news/forums/viewthread/425/

 

This recent accident in Scotland was attributed to depth hoar creating a weak layer of cohesionless snow.  Depth Hoar is most likely after long periods of cold weather.  (like we have just had in UK and France.  Depth Hoar is unusual in Scotland due to the maritime climate. 

 

This risk has been very present in France for the past 2 weeks.  There are concerns that the weak layer will be present under the snowpack for some time throughout the season.  Whether this is the case will be described in the avalanche bulletins.

 

Special Offer - Online talk reduced to £10 for ezine subscribers

 

The online talk is normally £19.50 for one whole season, but in recognition of the first declaration of risk level 4, last week, we are doing what we can to help you stay safe whilst making sure you can have more fun.

 

Now for just £10 you can learn about the weak layers and how you manage your skiing to avoid getting caught out by it.

 

This offer closes on 1st January, so do go online and make your purchase now.  You can check out the talk by watching part one for free

 

click here>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

To get this discount rember to use the coupon code "weaklayer"

Should we have described conditions as a "high 3"

On the J2ski forum there was comments about our use of the term a "high risk 3" Here is the post http://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/8/7467.page ise commented There's not much achieved by trying to slice a particular risk level into sub-levels, it's sending entirely the wrong message. There were different national systems for categorizing risk levels and these were simplified to the five levels we've got today. The whole point of that was to give people in the mountains a simple way of assessing the dangers when leaving secured areas. There was, and still is, a body of thought that wanted to make this three levels like traffic lights. Inviting people to believe there's days with a "high 3", a "low 3" or a "medium 3" or an arbitrary number of sub-levels invites people to try and game the system.  For the record, 3 means  "Avalanches may be triggered on many slopes even if only light loads [2] are applied. On some slopes, medium or even fairly large spontaneous avalanches may occur."  in turn a light load is defined as :  light: a single skier or snowboarder smoothly linking turns and without falling, a group of skiers or snowboarders with a minimum 10 m gap between each person, a single person on snowshoes.  That's no more and no less than HAT described :  We're concerned because it can collapse with the weight of just one skier - that collapse can then release a slab avalanche under a person's feet or even on a steeper slope above them. Météo France is warning about this layer Which is just how level three is defined, the weight of one person can cause a failure.  There is a poor layer in the pack but that's obvious, it wouldn't be risk three if the pack was consolidated. The significance of the layer arguably isn't anything to do with day to day risk, it's highly questionable how long it's going to take clear which is the concern. Most high risk levels are associated with recent snowfalls and clear as the top layer consolidated with an already consolidated base, that's not happening and that's a concern.  So, right now the snow's unstable and poorly consolidated but not incredibly dangerous in the scale of these things, it's just holiday time and you tend to see these incidents a lot. ie, these incidents are a lot more to do with human factors than they are some quality of the current snowpack Response from HAT on the use of the term "high 3" to describe the avalanche risk factor.  ise makes a valid point that the risk level was clearly a 3 on the day that we reported on. The conditions did meet the criteria for level 3 as accurately described in your posting.  I would also accept your point that sub slicing the risk factor can encourage people to second guess the experts and this may be risky.  So why did we do this in the ezine?  One of the criteria for differentiating between a risk level 3 and risk level 4 is whether the risk is localised or widespread. On that day, the professionals on the mountain judged the risk to be at the top end of localised and looking really quite widepspread.  We coupled this with the fact that off piste skiers with less experience of making these judgements, can view level 3 as "medium" (which it is not). This idea that 1 is safe, 2 is low, 3 is medium, 4 is high and 5 is dangerous is a worrying and dangerous concept that we are continually trying to warn against. Our use of the term a "high 3" was to provide an additional warning to casual user of these ratings.  On this day we felt the risks were high enough to justify an additional warning about the likelihood of triggering a slab avalanche and that risk existed in many places especially above 2300m.  Any other comments on this very welcome.

When is avalanche risk 3 a "high 3" not just a normal 3

Hoping you all had a great Christmas.  Here is a report for those of you planing to enjoy the skiing over the new year week.  We are focusing on the implications of the weak layer that has developed in the recent cold weather.  There are some days when risk level 3 needs even more caution than usual.  This week looks like one of those times.

 

The avalanche risk factor was reduced to a level 3 on 26th December from an avalanche rating of 4 on Christmas day.  Henry was able to get some great skiing in areas either where there was powder on the piste or where the slope angles where v gentle off piste and not exposed to loaded slopes above. We were able to do this thanks to the Christmas present of light snow and a couple clearing spells in the storm!

 

The reason the risk level went up so high was because of concerns about the weak layer. that is now present especially above 2300m.

 

The reson the risk level went down from 4 to 3 is becuase the risk became more localised rather than generalised.  However, localised, does not mean the risk is not considerable.  Remember risk level 3 is described as "Considerable" and not average or medium as is sometimes thought.

 

The local professionals are describing the current risk as a "high 3" rather than a "normal 3".  This is because the risk factor is really "very considerable" in the locations described by Meteo France.  This risk may be localised but it is very concerning and many of the pros have been taken for a short ride on a small releases triggered by their skiing activity.

 

This weak layer that has developed through the recent cold weather is quite widespread and looks deep.  It was made worse by the cold weather and will remain under the snow pack for the whole season.  This is something we will be referring to again in future ezines.

 

We have a special offer to help you understand this more.

 

Special Offer - Online talk reduced to £10 for ezine subscribers

 

The online talk is normally £19.50 for one whole season, but in recognition of the first declaration of risk level 4, this week, we are doing what we can to help you stay safe whilst making sure you can have more fun.

 

Now for just £10 you can learn about the weak layers and how you manage your skiing to avoid getting caught out by it.

 

This offer closes on 1st January, so do go online and make your purchase now.  You can check out the talk by watching part one for free

 

click here>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

To get this discount rember to use the coupon code "weaklayer"

Avalanche Takes 3 in Fornet, Val d'Isère..

...one buried, all survived. Here is a brief summary (see all photos at the bottom of this post):

The avalanche triggered while 3 people were touring up to the slope known as the 'point pers' (see diagonal track going up from middle right side of photo below this one). They triggered the avalanche that released 200 metres above them (the crown is approximately 400 metres wide) all 3 skiers were taken.

The slope is West facing at an altitude of approximately 3500 metres. Below is a photo of the full avalanche (you may need to click on it and in large to see the fracture that is most clear on the far right, but the group was taken in the area to the centre left of this photo).

Eric Pinn Photos

Here below shows the area to the left of the top of the lift in above photo (left of top of T-bar on Fornet Glacier). It shows the fracture that ran just underneath the rocks all the way around to the left of the photo. The 3 skiers were spread out by a distance of about 50 metres; the first person was taken (and buried) about 75 metres under the rather large isolated rock that runs diagonally in the middle of the slope. The crown fracture measured an approximate average of 40 centimetres (click on photo to enlarge). It should be noted that all of the victims were wearing ABS airbags and the two that were not buried inflated thiers. The person who was buried did not release his. Witnesses of the incident said that clearly the victims with the airbags were kept on top because of the inflated airbags.

That little speck on bottom left is where Mark was buried (click on photo below and you can zoom in)

Here are some more photos of the avalanche:

        

Mark halfway out - impossible to move under that snow (unlike some BBC shows would lead you to believe!)

Phew!! Mark here below after just being buried (notice his airbag not blown up - why? He just doesn't know why he didn't pull the handle)

As a matter or general interest here is the HAT snow report that was printed for this past weekend in the Mountain Echo (Val d'Isère, Tignes and Méribel)

This Weeks HAT Snow Report (published April 10 for the following week)

 The past week was fairly typical for this time of year: after snowstorms in some parts of the French Alps near the border of Italy e.g. the Southeast part of Savoie (Val d’Isère, Tignes and especially Bonneval-sur-Arc), the temperatures became very, very warm. The warm temperatures created melt-freeze cycles immediately on east, south and west faces up to over 3000 metres; the melt-freeze cycles were strong enough to make for some great spring skiing but the new snow led to a couple tragic accidents in the areas that got a lot of snow. For a brief discussion on melt-freeze and how to get the best spring skiing, see last week’s Mountain Echo or my post on www.getoffpiste.com on Tuesday April 1 (there is also a summary of one of the recent accidents on this site).

 For this coming week, it looks like snowpack conditions will continue to be much the same as they have been: with some fresh snow on a couple of occasions combined with melting and freezing.

 Tip of the week:

 Most avalanche accidents happen on North facing slopes because the stability there is much less predictable than on sunny slopes (slopes of high altitudes can behave like North facing slopes as it is colder up there and it takes time for the snow to settle and bond even in spring time). At this time of year we know that when a sunny slope has been in the sun for a long time, it is unstable. When the snowpack on that same slope has frozen, it is very stable. But on North facing slopes (or any slopes) that have not been subjected to melting and freezing just after a snowstorm, the instability can linger for a while. This is because:

1.  Initial instability comes quickly on slopes that are subject to intense sunshine or high temperatures, but then these slopes become stable again once they have frozen.

2. However, slopes that don’t get a lot of sun right away after a snowfall (e.g. high north facing slopes) will stay cold and powdery for a day or two and they can remain unstable in steep areas for several days.

So after a fresh snowfall, apply the key points of off-piste safety:

A)   Think about your choice of slope and which direction it is facing (N,S,E,W)

B)   Go one at a time or keep good distances between each group member so you only expose one person at a time to any danger (like cliffs, trees, rocks or narrow valley bottoms bellow)

C)    Stop/regroup at islands of safety (places that are not exposed to avalanches above and/or not exposed to danger below).

 

 

Have Fun, Be Safe!

 

Henry and the HAT Team

See http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com for events this week!

 

 

Accidental Avalanche - Solaise Secteur Val d'Isère

Accidental Avalanche North facing. Triggered by a skier (or maybe up to 4 skiers) at approximately 10.30 am this morning. Fracture released at approx 2900 m just above the top of 'Télésiege du Glacier' (approx 2800 m) in the Solaise Secteur of Val d'Isère - slope angle 30-35°. Significant accumulations in this area from Tues-Thursday 2 April (30-40 cm total) more in windloaded areas. There is a dip/trench under the bump in the foreground where the people are standing i. a terrain trap where the snow built up (how deep is not confirmed at this moment). One person is in critical condition in the hospital. See photos below for more detail.

This photo (below) taken from across valley on South side of Rocher du Charvet. Notice top of 'Télésiege du Glacier' (approx 2800 m) in the Solaise Secteur of Val d'Isère on far left.

Apparently 4 skiers were taken or involved in the group where victims were taken and buried (see fracture/crown below). This was cold winter snow in an area not subjected to skier compaction during the season and a cohesionless layer of snow next to the ground at the bottom of the snowpack (angular grains formed due to kinetic metamorphism over previous weeks/months) had been identified on similar slopes (similar exposure and altitude) several days earlier. Recent avalanche activity (occurring within 24-48 hours of this avalanche) were also identified on similar slopes (see photo just below this one for an example).

Summary of the Past Week & Glance Ahead

I skied quite a bit with Dan Egan and his Ski Clinics groups last week here in Val d'Isère. So this week I asked him to do the snow report (I add in a couple hunches I have for the next few days at the bottom):

The Skiing in Espace Killy has been a season worth of snow types in the past seven days!  The week opened with chalky snow on the north faces and hard firm frozen ribbed snow elsewhere.  Wins and cool temperatures key the snow from transforming and on Wednesday the storm finally arrived and the high pressure that had plagued the French Alps finally buggered off. The storm dropped a much needed carpet of fresh snow at all elevations. It appears that more snow is on the way for the weekend so prepare to call in sick for work and plan on great skiing well into next week.
 
PLEASE remember that the snow is sitting on very firm and slick old snow that was frozen.  So small pockets of activity are being reported from Chamonix to Val D Isere (several accidents have been reported).  Watch out before you jump into a line of fresh snow - if you're good enough, cut the slope and, no matter what, pick an Island of Safety for an escape route.  Just because there are tracks and your friends have skied doesn’t mean the slope won’t slide.  Take responsibility for yourself and use precaution.  As an old Val D Isere local once told me, Slowly, Slowly, don’t rush the mountain!
 
Be safe and have fun,
 
Dan Egan
Skiclinics.com 

The next week looks like it will continue like the end of this past week with lots of overcast days, some snow... BUT less wind and much warmer temps mid-week. Today the skiing was great up high on the glaciers where there was another 10cm or so of fresh snow. The snow stability is generally good, but there are pockets of instability that can take you down a good 50-100 metres - several accidental avalanches have been reported to confirm this danger (fractures of 20-40 cm in places due to the high winds that occurred at times over the last 6 days!)

See Thursday's post on Dan's presentation: the world premier of his 4 DVD set entitled, Egan Entertainment Network's CULT CLASSICS at dicks tea bar in Val d'Isère.