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

FRENCH PRESS COVERAGE: The British Consul talks Mountain Safety with HAT & the town of Val d'Isère!

Check out our coverage in the regional newspaper le Dauphiné Libéré!

(See english translation below)

 

 

Claire Bouteille, the British Consul based in Lyon, visited Val d’Isere on Wednesday to meet with a group of representatives from the Local Council, the Tourist Office, Piste Security and us at Henry’s Avalanche Talk. The meeting had been planned for a long time, with the goal of discussing the impact a ‘Mountain Safety’ campaign directed at British holidaymakers in the Alps has had during the winter 2009/10. This campaign, of which the slogan ‘Don’t catch your death’ was perceived as inflammatory by some, warned holiday makers of the excesses that can affect you when spending 8 days at a winter sports destination. Through this deliberately poignant slogan, the misuse of alcohol, as well as off-piste skiing without being properly informed, are referred to. The consul stated that the British Ambassador would like to continue this awareness campaign again next winter. This campaign, before holidaymakers leave the UK and while they are on holiday in the mountains, will be based on the affects of alcohol, cold and altitude on the body, wearing helmets and the lack of ski insurance. In order to slim down these ideas, the consul listened attentively to the opinions of the professionals present (including us at HAT!), choosing Val d’Isère as a pilot station. A summary is being written up by the local team present, and highlighting the situation here in Val d’Isère. The work done will allow the construction of the awareness campaign to be carried out more effectively.

 

 

There was some engaging discussion around off piste & avalanche awareness as well as other areas of concern about people on holiday in the winter sports environment. For example: wearing helmets, as well as the best means of raising awareness about how altitude and cold, and alcohol affects people in these conditions and can have a huge impact on the body. The question of having adequate insurance cover for rescue and mountain sports was also debated, since many insurers do not cover claims made for off-piste skiing even though they say they do in some or most cases.

 HAT is working closely with everyone involved to ensure that our message to ‘Have Fun, Be Safe’ is heard loud and clear! Videos and reports in French available via this link to Radio Val d'Isère's web site: http://www.radiovaldisere.com/avalines.php

 

Snow Report (for this past week - early next week)

This season’s trend of cloudy weather, wind and light snow with the occasional clearing spell for a few hours or a few days continued this past week. The result was more great skiing simply because the old tracks always seemed to be covered up by the frequent snow showers. This coming week looks like more of the same: cold cloudy weather for Saturday and Sunday with maybe some snow showers, a bit clearer on Monday and then sunny and slightly warmer for mid-week.
 

Snow Quality and Stability

“I’ve been talking about a weak layer that is still persistent on North’ish facing slopes above 2200 metres, and it is still there”. This is what I’ve been saying for the past few weeks; true we haven’t had really big cycles of large avalanches, perhaps because the quantities of new snowfalls during any given snow-storm have not been that big in much of the Northern French Alps. However there has been accidental avalanche activity that can’t be neglected. The accidental avalanche in the Combe de Signal a.k.a. Sunny Bowl in Val d’Isère last Monday, is a good example of how, with a 40 cm of new snow over a few days, a well traveled area can suddenly be triggered and take 3-5 skiers down the slope with it (see photos on blog entry for March 1 on www.getoffpiste.com). This avalanche fit the forecast in the avalanche bulletin and the definition of the danger rating for the day - which was a 3.

Tips for this coming week

a) When there's fresh snow on a steep slope, there's always some risk that should never be marginalized in the minds of the people on that slope… just in case there is an 'unlucky' avalanche.

b) Well traveled off piste runs are fairly well packed down by in-resort skier traffic now, but once you venture even a little way from where people have been skiing over the last couple months, it’s a much less stable situation. Plus you never know… So keep up-to-date on the snow conditions and stability by visiting our blog on www.getoffpiste.com  and go to the avalanche forecast translation in the left column, OR if you can read French, on: www.meteo-france.com >Montagne>Bulletins Avalanches.

 

Off Piste & Avalanche Awareness Talks: Week of 7 March:

Monday (on bad weather days) 15.30 sharp Basic Talk at the Moris in Val d’Isère

Weds  18.00 sharp Basic Talk at the Pacific Bar in Val d’Isère

You need to show up at least15 mins before the talk to take advantage of the deals on food & drink!

Tickets are €7.50 (one person under 18 per adult free) and includes great deals on food and drinks at each place! Pre-booking on line price is: £6 on www.henrysavalanchetalk.com (if you can’t come to a talk see our on-line talks on the web site)

HAT is taking the Talks on-snow this year for people who want to learn more in Val d’Isère & Tignes!
See www.henrysavalanchetalk.com for more info on these practical short courses  

Meoncross School Session with HAT & Val d'Isère Ski Patrol

 

17 students Meoncross School had a very exciting session with HAT & the Service des Pistes de Val d'Isère. Images and vids below (this entry will be updated to include more images, vid etc soon!).

 

   

 
 

 

Transceivers - Digital matters for inexperienced users

The main focus of off-piste skiers at this point in the season is getting ready and being prepared.  A key element of this is having the right equipment.

 

We have just acquired the results a very detailed test of different transceivers

 

Get the test results here >>>>>>>>>

 

This shows that for expert users there is little difference between the models.  But for most of us (infrequent or inexperienced users) the new digital models offering direction and distance information make a difference and will help you find an avalanche victim more quickly.

 

This shows that the advice of some expert users may not be exactly right for you if you are not an expert.  Their familiarity with the tool makes it difficult for them to see it from your point of view.  You need to judge the features of different models.

 

We are recommending the Patroller for lowest cost, the D3 for great performance at a fair price and the S1 as the easiest to use, all from Ortovox. All these will keep you safe. 

 

As well as advice in the ezine you can ask questions via the live webinar broadcasts.  At these sessions we will go through the avalanche talk but will also add in report so n the snow conditions and the current dangers and are open to any questions you may have.

 

Live avalanche talk by webinar - click here for details >>>>>>>

 

Also we will be kicking off the live talks in Val d'Isere and Tignes next week

 

Off Piste & Avalanche Awareness Talks
Monday  15.30 Basic Talk at the Moris in Val d'Isère
Tuesday  18.00 Basic Talk at the Bagus in Tignes (you need to be at the Bagus by 17.30 to take advantage of the deals on food & drink!)
Weds   18.00 Basic Talk at the Pacific Bar in Val d'Isère

 

Tickets are €7.50 (one person under-18 in free per adult) and includes great deals on food and drinks at each place!

Pre-booking on line is: £6 click here>>>>>>>>>>>

 

Special Offers

 

Until Sunday, we have some great offers on products in our Equipment store

 

10% off prices on off-piste safety equipment.

 

Chris Radford

HAT ezine editor

Dan Egan's Cult Classic Premier is a big hit in Val d'Isère

HAT hosted Dan Egan's world premier of his 4 DVD set entitled, Egan Entertainment CULT CLASSICS at dicks tea bar in Val d'Isère. 

Dan (below) brought us off-piste from Turkey to Russia and from western Canada to Sugarbush, Vermont. The chronology of these skiing exploits were defined by thin skis and day-glow one piece suits at first.. and by the end, we were back in this century in wide skis and cool all-mountain equipment - feels good!

Attended by young and old, guests of the resort as well as many saisonaires (some more 'seasoned' than others). All had a great time thanks in large part to Dan's live commentary combined with action and adventure footage most of which featured him and his brother, the 'EGAN BROTHERS', riding off piste slopes through the decades

Egan Brother's Cult Classics @ dicks 6pm this Weds

On Weds 6pm at Dick’s T Bar, Dan Egan will present a film festival of Extreme Skiing films shot over the last 20 years featuring John and Dan Egan and the Wild World of Winter Gang.  Entry is Free.

The films featured are all produced by Egan Entertainment Network and were released from 1989 to 2009. 

Titles include such classics as Return of the Shred-I, Extreme Dream, Where the Steeps have No Name and the Best of Ski Bumology.
 
Don’t miss this fun evening with commentary by Dan Egan 

This is event is a HATadventures production!

This Week's HAT Certificates

This week HAT awarded several Certificates of Off Piste Excellence (COPE) to participants of on-snow modules. Here in the photo is Shelley Vernon and Ben Sawyer. Other's awarded certificates this week were Matt Cheung, Charlotte Saint-Jean and Ginny Dawson (Voka the Spanial is eying a certificate here with envy, but it was decided that she needs to practice her spade work... she ended up with a certificate, 'high marks for effort and enthusiasm' though. Somehow she knew that I'm a softy.

Skiing yesterday and today was nice in sunny weather - not to hot - snow a bit heavy - some instability so we're being pretty cautious. See photos below.

What a Talk is & Why go to a Talk

Why Go to an Off-piste Adventure Talk

Download a higher resolution 'Why Go to an Off-piste Adventure Talk' video here:

Download HAT_Why_go_to_a_talk.mpg

What is a Talk? Check it out here:

Download a higher resolution 'What is a Talk' video here: