UKC

Anyone out in La Grave at the moment, how is the snow looking for skiing?

cheers

I'm over in Serre Che on the other side of the Lauteret. Snow has been sparse everywhere in the southern alps but that is now changing. Snow has fallen this week and more (much more) is forecast for Thurs/Fri and into Sat. Winds have been very strong unfortunately so windslab formation has been significant and avalanche risk high (3) on all facets bar west and south-west. 

Thanks for the update. Let me know how’s it looking today after snow fall - Friday?  

Hi I live near Briançon so again the other side, it has been an epic 24 hour non stop now 70 - 80 cm and it still snowing now 21:30 and forecast to be on and off through out the night.

its cat 5 everywhere.

Apparently the lift was open today though the Avi risk was at least 4. Check out Joe Vallone on Facebook. He often has some useful comments. Today he was musing about the people going up there being like "ducks in a row" for the unstable snowpack...

Weather is looking mostly good this coming week but it will need most of the week to settle down. Risk level is 4 on all facets tomorrow. 

I just drove over the Col du Lauteret yesterday and traffic was stopped for an hour or so while they did avalanche control then cleared the debris off the road.  Looking round while waiting, there had clearly been a heap of wind along with the heap of snow.

Out for a little light touring above Briancon today, there was still a lot of wind transport going on with moderate to strong wind gusts even around 2000 m.  When I skied onto a couple of test slopes they triggered easily (single skier, no jumping) and cracks propagated rapidly.

Having said all that, there's some good snow out there where the wind hasn't affected it.  I think the best and safest skiing will be below tree line.  Above that, I'd expect significant wind loading on a range of aspects and careful terrain selection will be important.

I'll be out again tomorrow so can update this when I get back.

P.S.  If anyone's out this way and fancies some ice climbing this week then drop me a line!

Quick update - it seems like there's quite a bit of depth hoar out there so steep terrain at lower altitudes is suspect too.