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
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.
How likely is it that the slope will slide in a situation like this?
Posted by: flirting tips | 01 June 2011 at 21:24