Unfortunately there is a serious natural instability in the snowpack at the moment. As a consequence of the fragile snowpack a skier was tragically killed in the Sache yesterday. With the resort closed due to Covid there is very limited avalanche control through blasting. And the further away you go from the few open pistes the less control there is. In many zones there will be absolutely no avalanche control at all, making for some dangerous and delicate conditions.
Besides the natural instability another factor of the closed resorts is the lack of ‘skier-compaction’ of the snowpack. Normally there would be periods where the slope in question would have had bumps on it due to skier traffic. With more and more people skiing off-piste these days many younger skiers have no idea what it used to be like when we didn’t have the added stability from ‘skier-compaction’. We all hate a tracked-out mountain but the passing of skiers and boarders does greatly add to the stability of the mountain. And this season anyone skiing off-piste doesn’t have that ‘compaction’ luxury. Extra thought and caution is a must! Chris has added a link to the newspaper article and photo of the tragic avalanche. Le Dauphine.com
Stay tuned and be ready for more shocking news coming from America. The National Guard as been called in as Trump’s four-years of hate stirring, dividing politics comes to a head as Joe Biden’s inauguration approaches! It promises to be ugly!!! And it could be violent!!!