Avalanche Risks

A couple of reports picked up off the web, take care peeps. First one from
Alpine Experience in Val D'Isere.

January 10th.
Last night it snowed but less intensely than last night, and we had between
15 and 20 centimetres of fresh snow. Unfortunately the wind was much
stronger and many of the slopes that were very good yesterday were wind
compressed, and as Phil said, "Very educational". TJ, Henry and I all skied
at the Fornet and we did our best as being a Saturday during the quietest
week of the season, in the middle of a storm, with a mounting avalanche
risk, they weren't exactly in a rush to open up the lifts. We still made the
best of the conditions and had some pretty good sking. Rumour has it there
were several avalanches this afternoon in both Tignes and Val, possible with
deaths, so stay tuned for further news. I'd like to say goodbye to David
Charlesworth who is always a pleasure to ski with, and for any of you
woodworkers out there, check his site on our links page. I'd also like to
mention David George who skied with us this week, and was a guest speaker at
Henry's talk. You could also look at his website on www.pistehors.com It
cleared this afternoon (which gave people the visibility to get themselves
into trouble) but it is forecast to snow again this evening.

January 9th.
The snow started to fall around 8:30 pm and continued all night. TJ and I
arrived at the Fornet to find 35 cms. of fresh powder and we skied off the
Pyramid twice, then two Combe de Signal's and finally the Grand Vallon. We
had decent visibility considering it was a white-out for the first few runs
and then the snow and cloud thickened and our vision became very limited.
Still, the skiing was very good and we didn't see anyone else during our
travels. Oli, JM and Pietro all made their way up to the Fornet after
starting from Solaise. All the boys are now wearing thier Air-bags and will
be for some time in the future. The snow continued all day and wind kept the
Borsat closed, so the avalanche risk will be on the rise.

January 8th.
Possible threatening skies thinned out to lovely sunshine and again we all
walked to ski good snow. TJ and I skied of the Crete du Genepy, Pietro skied
the Col des Fours, and Oli and JM passed over the Col de la Calabourdane,
the Cols des Fours and finally the Lores, and JM commented that it was his
best day of the season. A special mention to Darryl in Wayne's group who has
been dragged around in his eighth week of skiing. The weather is changing
and the snow should start to fall midway through the night and it is
forecast to continue for four or five days. With the snowpack being rotten
and unstable a good storm will purge the mountain and hopefully a more
stable snowpack will follow. Oli and JM are off for a week to visit their
families.

GRENOBLE, France (Reuters) - Three snowboarders have died and a third was
injured after being swept away by avalanches that hit winter sports resorts
in the southeast of France.

Police said on Sunday three snow boarders, in their twenties and from Paris,
were off-piste at a level of about 2,100 metres (6,700 feet) at Tignes when
they were swept into a lake by an avalanche.

Rescue workers found only one survivor in Lake Tignes on Saturday, who was
suffering from hypothermia.

French television LCI also reported that a 32-year-old off-piste snowboarder
died overnight in hospital after being seriously injured by another
avalanche in the Val d`Isere area.


Bill