We’ve had a cooler week in Avoriaz and enjoyed new snow making it feel more like winter again. The fresh snow on Sunday was very welcome and helped to enhance the conditions. How those pisteurs manage the snow and keep our pistes in good condition is amazing, but hopefully the new snow is helping! It’s been staying cold and the freezing level remains low at around 1000 metres at night.
More snow coming
After light snow on Monday evening, a low pressure is passing over the Alps bringing good amounts of snow through Tuesday to Wednesday this week. We are looking at upwards of 10 to 16 cm of new snow, although at higher altitudes there could be more. This will be followed by a couple of sunny days. So blue skies, sunshine and powder on the cards for the end of the week! The temperature has remained cooler and the freezing level is around 1000 metres Tuesday evening. The night time temperatures remain cold down to between -5°C and -9°C for the week. During the day it will stay a little cooler around 2 - 3°C below 1600 metres. Friday and over the weekend it is looking changeable as a new low pressure is coming through with snow in the forecast but it’s a bit early to predict how much precipitation.
Avalanche risk
The current avalanche level is around 3 out of 5 through the northern Alps below about 2000 metres and is up to 4 out of 5 above that in the high altitude resorts where we saw higher snowfall last Sunday. Extra caution is needed around the colder, shady and north, north west and north east facing slopes over about 2000 metres. Significant snowfall will likely temporarily increase this risk especially on the north facing slopes. Instability in the snowpack becomes more critical with more snow.
Cool video below this week from Val Thorens on the Aiguille de Peclet and a great Mont Blanc shot from Katharina on Instagram.
