Avalanche bulletin and weather forecast Haute Savoie

This avalanche translation of the Meteo France avalanche bulletin is produced mainly through an automated translation tool. Please use it in conjunction with the French bulletin found at the above link.

N74211211  - SNOW BULLETIN FOR AVALANCHE RISK - HAUTE SAVOIE
VALID OFF TRACKED AND OPEN TRAILS)
PREPARED ON FRIDAY 21 DECEMBER
FOR SATURDAY DECEMBER 22

ESTIMATE OF RISK UNTIL SATURDAY EVENING:
Chablais and Aravis: Low risk (level 1).
Massif du Mont Blanc: limited risk (level 2).

WEATHER OVERVIEW UNTIL SATURDAY NIGHT: Beautiful temperatures becoming cloudy.

Isothermal 0 DG: 2000 m, with cold air in the valley bottoms.
Wind at 2000 m: Slow.
Wind at 4000 m: South 40 km / h.

SNOW CONDITIONS:
They are excellent for mid-December with a base like at high altitude! There is skiing from 800 m in northern slopes, 1000 meters in the south. In altitude, we find significant variations in thickness of snow following the winds that blew hard in different directions. Caution with the snow bridges that can still be fragile on the lower parts of the glaciers.

Quality of snow for Saturday:
At mid mountain, you will find especially good old powdery snow in particular at low altitude with ice surface, except in the southern slopes where snow is transformed croûtée the morning and then a little wet in the afternoon. At high altitude in the Mont Blanc massif, as well as in some other sectors exposed to wind, snow, but not powdery or cardboard hard by the wind with ski conditions are not very pleasant.

STABILITY OF SNOW COVER:
Risk of slabs a little less weak in the Mont Blanc massif.

After ten days of fine weather, the snowpack is now well stabilized as a whole, with a few nuances.

On average Mountains, which could trigger a slab avalanche with the passage of one or more skier continue to be increasingly localized, located rather to the high peaks in areas of blown snow. In high mountain in the Mont Blanc, the risk of slabs formed by the wind will remain slightly higher because of wind that blew over several days.

On the other hand, in some steep slopes, mid-mountain oriented south-east to south-west, there will still be a very small risk of avalanches, small or medium-sized, carrying snow to the ground. However, the decline in sunlight compared to the last few days will tend to mitigate this risk, the thaw to be less good.

TREND LATER RISK:
Until Tuesday, Christmas Day, the risk will remain unchanged or go down slightly.

Meteo-France updates this newsletter everyday at 16h or sooner if conditions warrant.