Snow for the Euros.

[Hayduke]

You lost your phone too Tom?

[Hicks]

Sorry due to a hard drive wipe caused by the joys of microsoft i have lost all that days photos

Say it ain't so!

[bbirtle]

2/13, Chamonix. Dear Diary, we've got some fucking snow.

60cm of fresh and light at Les Houches, suspect more higher up. All dumped last night, on top of the dump from a few days back which was not yet all tracked out.

20-30cm more predicted for tomorrow and sunny skies on Thurs/Fri/Sat.

Suddenly things are looking up! :-)

[klar]

^^ lalalalala i'm not listening lalalaa
damn.

There's plenty of snow up there these days, and it's a sweet place to practice skiing steep terrain.. fun for the whole family..

how high is "up there"?

[geo039]

F the weatherman! (Not the messenger LITT) All Euro mags use our collective positive thought powers and push the warm air away! The "MAN" is keeping me down until Saturday, so please...and I ask please push this sh-- out of here!

Western Alpes/CH - add Friday afternoon to your list

it is forecast...

...the Lord giveth,
and the Lord taketh away...

[Roo]

Just a quick temperature spike on Friday and then back to snow for the weekend in the Southern French Alps at least...

[Ripzalot]

i just spoke to al - apparently there was an avalanche in leysin and a kid is missing. search is still on. that's all i know. doesn't sound good.

+++vibeage+++

[powders]

Deeeeeep day in GM today. Herse open, fairly variable in terms of wind affected pow. Very deep in magic forest. Seemed like everyone was up the mountain, got tracked very fast, didn't help Bochard was closed (at least till 2pm when we raced to flegere). In flegere, only evettes open, nice runs trhough trees, but by that time, very heavy pow. South face and low elevations aren't that great...
Brevent was also very limited, col cornu and top lift closed. When these open with index, it's going to be off the hook. Hopefully that will be tomorrow morning

as for friday onwards, seems like every forecasting agency are posting wildly different forecasts at each run. Seems like anything can happen.

[jskierpx]

i just spoke to al - apparently there was an avalanche in leysin and a kid is missing. search is still on. that's all i know. doesn't sound good.

+++vibeage+++

wtf, i didnt even think there was enough snow to slide up there. Well I guess with all the wind maybe thats it. Crazy, anymore info post it up.

Anyone have a say on if Verbier is worth the drive tomorrow? Will they open anything up? Or is thursday looking like the day? any input appreciated just want to get somewhere a bit higher where it will be not so sierra cement coastal concrete material.


GOOD VIBES in prayers

[IridePow]

Just read about this new published guide.
Seems to be pretty good.
http://www.helveticbackcountry.ch/

I thought some of you guys might be interested.
(I am probably late with this announcement.... but anyway, enjoy the Swiss Alps)

[jskierpx]

yep word is student of international school in Leysin found(not alive) under 2 meters of snow somewhere around bernuse over night. Wind loading said to be the culprit here. Be careful out there everyone, and anyone who has a link to articles would be greatly appreciated, I want to know what school he was from and anything else. keep him in your prayers

[Ripzalot]

sadness.

from meteoleysin:

La neige a cessé rapidement hier en matinée pour laisser place à quelques éclaircies. Le vent d’ouest est resté très fort en matinée, empêchant une fois d plus le fonctionnement des remontées mécaniques les plus exposées. Avec 35 à 40 cm de neige fraîche vers 2000 m et 25-30 à 1500 m, une bonne partie des installations fermées par manque de neige a pu être réouverte. Un étudiant d’une école internationale de la station a été emporté par une avalanche en pratiquaient le hors-piste dans un couloir sous la Berneuse. Son corps sans vie a été retrouvé sous 2 mètres de neige après une longue opération de secours, compliquée par la nuit, qui a fait intervenir une cinquantaine de sauveteurs, 5 chiens d’avalanches et 2 hélicoptères. Le niveau d’avalanche était annoncé comme marqué (3 sur 5) et à cause des très forts vents des derniers jours le bulletin précisait qu’il fallait «beaucoup d’expérience dans l’évaluation de la situation avalancheuse».

[Idris]

Skied untracked wind deposited velvet, 0 to 50cm's deep on the backside of letour this morning. got 5 laps before it started to look tracked, I had to go to work and the leggs were getting fatigued from 600m (2000ft) high speed laps

[TeleAl]

Was on the hill last night as part of the search party.
Ripz' post was on. For those that don't speak French some details:
Av ran 300m, student found dead under 2m of snow after 50 people,
some dogs, 2 Helis, and a slew of others organized and worked to find him.

I too was amazed at this considering the amount of snow on the ground.
When we finally located him under 2m, I could not believe all that snow piled up
from such a not so deep crown line. It was wide, but not that deep.
It adds up.

I learned alot last night.
The amount of time it takes to remove 2m of snow is enormous
compared to the 15-35 minutes one has to survive being buried.
I could not imagine doing that in a timely manner with only a few others.

Be safe.

Today's weather is snowing up top, but not below. Wet it is.

[TeleAl]

How about this:
Walked out onto my balcony for a breath of fresh air,
heard a rumble, look across to Chamoissaire, see a slide in action.

WTF?

Wetness on top of snow on top of icy shitty under layer = danger.
Stay above 2000m.

[p@wder]

Was on the hill last night as part of the search party.
Ripz' post was on. For those that don't speak French some details:
Av ran 300m, student found dead under 2m of snow after 50 people,
some dogs, 2 Helis, and a slew of others organized and worked to find him.

I too was amazed at this considering the amount of snow on the ground.
When we finally located him under 2m, I could not believe all that snow piled up
from such a not so deep crown line. It was wide, but not that deep.
It adds up.

I learned alot last night.
The amount of time it takes to remove 2m of snow is enormous
compared to the 15-35 minutes one has to survive being buried.
I could not imagine doing that in a timely manner with only a few others.

Be safe.

Today's weather is snowing up top, but not below. Wet it is.

warm and wet, normally thats a good thing on Valentines.

anyone have any idea where to go for a tour this weekend, possible a 2-dayer with a night in a hut, in western CH.

[Ripzalot]

Was on the hill last night as part of the search party.
Ripz' post was on. For those that don't speak French some details:
Av ran 300m, student found dead under 2m of snow after 50 people,
some dogs, 2 Helis, and a slew of others organized and worked to find him.

I too was amazed at this considering the amount of snow on the ground.
When we finally located him under 2m, I could not believe all that snow piled up
from such a not so deep crown line. It was wide, but not that deep.
It adds up.

I learned alot last night.
The amount of time it takes to remove 2m of snow is enormous
compared to the 15-35 minutes one has to survive being buried.
I could not imagine doing that in a timely manner with only a few others.

Be safe.

Today's weather is snowing up top, but not below. Wet it is.

shitty deal. was the avy in the Stoehl? the paper said the body was recovered at 10:30pm. i presume he was skiing alone and triggered the avy but wasn't noticed missing until later that day or evening.

[jskierpx]

shitty deal. was the avy in the Stoehl? the paper said the body was recovered at 10:30pm. i presume he was skiing alone and triggered the avy but wasn't noticed missing until later that day or evening.

what paper did you read this in, any online articles???

[davidof]

Ugh... just got in, horrible weather after the brief periods of sun yesterday. Lots of avy activity all over the French Alps. Some guys rode out a huge slide in the Perrins, others not so lucky.

Rain to 2200m today, trying to get my kit, skins etc dry for tomorrow which promises... what? rain crust maybe better higher up.

[Arno]

anyone have any idea where to go for a tour this weekend, possible a 2-dayer with a night in a hut, in western CH.

lots of good stuff starting in Arolla. maybe La Luette on day 1 and stay in the Dix hut then the Pigne d'Arolla on day 2 with a descent all the way back to Arolla

[Ripzalot]

what paper did you read this in, any online articles???

it was just a small blurb in 20minutes or le matin bleu (the freebie daily papers).

[TDJ]

It's absolutely nuking here in Nendaz... just like yesterday and the day before.

[stantonbum1]

Just spoke to a friend in Nendaz and he says the snow is great at the moment. I`m heading down on Sat to ski there

Anybody potentially keen to hook up? My friend is working on Sunday so I would be very keen to find someone to ski with down there.

[Gripen]

Just caught this in the Swedish news. Sad.

http://www.thelocal.se/6407/20070214/

[stantonbum1]

Anyone have any more info on the deaths of the Swedish guys?

Unfortunately it seems that its always the Swedish skibums who are caught in slides in the Arlberg.