Off Piste Snow Report – N French Alps – Week starting 11 January 2025
Bluebird ski days from Sunday onwards
What a wildly varied week of weather we’ve just had! We’ve seen snowstorms, rain, high winds, often ‘white out’ skiing conditions, and also some nice bright spells …..
Saturday will still see a little residual snow coming down, but this is all due to change from Sunday onwards. For the rest of the week, a much calmer period of blue skies and clear nights, as a new high pressure weather system comes in.
With the fresh snow received, particularly at higher altitudes last week, there will be some extremely nice off-piste skiing to be had this coming week, especially at the start – before it gets tracked out and we need to revert to ski touring again. Feature photo by Wayne Watson of his daughter Millie.
Clear skies and a thin snowpack at the beginning of the season have helped to create weak layers which last week’s fresh snowfall landed upon. This has, and will continue to be, a serious issue next week on the colder North’ish facing and shaded slopes above 2000 m, where persistent weak layers continue. These weak layers are at the root of almost all serious avalanche accidents in the Alps. So anyone who is heading for steep slopes with fresh snow needs to think seriously beforehand i.e. APPLY key safety points that are outlined in our Framework.
See the snowpack test demonstration below from Data Avalanche taken in the Vanoise area of Savoie at 2390 m on Wednesday last week (8th Jan).
Avalanche Bulletin
Weather forecast : Sat 11th to Thurs 16th Jan
A very sunny and calm week from Sunday onwards.
See the snow report below from Snow-Forecast.com.
Safety is Freedom!
To be safe and have more fun when you’re off-piste, check out our 12 minute overview of the HAT Framework method and the Essentials Talk entitled “Safety is Freedom Pocket Guide” on Video. It contains the key points that you need to know and to apply in order to keep things acceptably safe off-piste and ski touring, and to have more fun with or without a professional!
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