UKC

Have followed previous topics asking about conditions around Briancon/La Grave which often point people to the French web sites. But I'm confused

ice-fall.com says lots of stuff is in condition, whereas...
cascades-infos.com says nothing is in condition.

Anyone know what the true picture is? Or which site is the more trustworthy?

Heading out to Vallouise for New Year. In case there's neither much ice nor powder, I've also been looking into the goulottes in the high mountains. Found lots of chat about Raie de Fesses on the Pic Sans Nom, but anyone done any good, but slightly easier lines?

cheers for any help, Tony

In reply to TonyM: as i understand not alot in at the moment, you could try e-mailing jerry gore the brit abroad as he lives out there, runs a web site called alpbase.com, email off that
snow is forecast
last year it was a good cold xmas new year hitting -18 at times, plus a fat dump of powder, just hoping it happens again
if lots is in, then why is no-one reporting on ice-fall, which is usually very good for daily updates of route conditions.....

In reply to TonyM: It's not been that cold here in the Vallouise valley and in the Ecrins generally until the last week or so. This week it has been down around -8C at night at 1100m, but the temps are due to go back up again this weekend with freezing level possibly going as high as 3000m for a short while. Not done any ice yet this year as most stuff at valley level is not in condition yet and am too busy/lazy to get up to the higher stuff.

On the snow front Puy Saint Vincent and Serre Chevalier have had good dumps of snow with about 80cms at 2700m. I walked up and snowboarded down around 1400m at PSV last sunday in about 20-30cms of powder.

With regard to ice-fall.com I doubt there is much info. up to date yet as not much will be being done it's mostly info from last year I guess.

Hope this helps.

In reply to TonyM: a make has just got back from the area and said the conditions were total carp. hope this clears things up jb

In reply to all:
Thanks very much for info. I wondered if the condition information on ice-fall.com was just the residual from last season. Since there aren't any recent reports or photos from the cascades on the site it must be so.
Tony

In reply to TonyM: dont know what you were looking at on ice-fall, but under secteur cascades when you look at areas it has date of report, you will note most are from feb/march 06
hth

In reply to gear boy:
Ahh. I see now. Thought I must be being a dumb-ass! I was looking at routes last reported on from Nov/early Dec *05*.

<picks up pointed hat and heads to the corner>
Tony

In reply to TonyM:

Hi tony it's phil, they have just updated the ice-fall site I think to make it easier to see where stuff is in. Look for green dots I believe. good luck for your xmas trip, getting cold now so should be some stuff in.