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French resorts move to ban ski touring

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Worried about the gold rush for ski touring gear in the shops and the unstable avalanche conditions (a number of skier triggered avalanches reported across the French Alps on Thursday) some ski resorts have introduced temporary bans on ski touring and snowshoeing in their communes

http://pistehors.com/_bCTVnYByuHDGsGADHGx/ski-resorts-ban-ski-touring
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
The feckin hordes (néophytes) from Grenoble screwing it up for everyone as usual Laughing

On a more serious note various POVs on a similar theme over on http://www.skitour.fr/

If the resorts did make the routes safe and a piste to ski down it would take the pressure off a potential ban for everywhere as others are now saying.....

And love that word, néophytes Very Happy

Je ne suis pas pro mais un peu inquiet de cet engouement "artificiel".
Il serait peut être bien que les stations définissent vite des itinéraires sécurisées pour éviter des accidents. Les exemples récents comme à Réallon ont démontré l’intérêt de ces initiatives.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@davidof, Being a bit of a néophyte myself, while it would annoy me intensely, I can very much see the point. The "official" track in les Houches on Thursday was like Piccadilly Circus.

The shops in Cham that specialise in rando kit are having to order in more boots and skis as they're selling out. No-one's ever seen anything like it.

The 2nd hand market on (if it happens) Jan 7th will be splendid! I have my beadies on one of the pairs of Blizzard 0Gs that have been flying out the door. Usually as complete sets: skis, bindings, boots, sticks, skins, crampons, " ... and you'll also be needing ... " being the mots du jour Happy
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Just read on skitour.fr Isère: municipal decrees to prohibit access to the slopes this weekend.

http://www.skitour.fr/forum/read_353386_2.html

Just what we feared would happen could well be happening

https://stylealtitude.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-a-closed-french-ski-resort.html
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I suspect there will be a lot skinning up here tomorrow if the promised sunshine arrives. We've had a lot of snow.

A "piste map" for the Christmas period has just been published. 2 official touring ski routes, a cross country piste up here to supplement the one in Venosc, plenty of hiking and snowshoe paths. I don't know whether something will be pisted for the descent after taking the touring route up.
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@Claude B, that's good news

Maybe they'll rename the piste, Piste des Néophytes Laughing
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I have rarely seen so many people on touring gear as this morning. If it continues like this it is going to be manic on the popular routes.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@davidof, been semi torturing myself looking at the Lautaret webcam and as you can see not been that tracked out, though you could see that the parking for the Pic Blanc Galibier route was busy, but hardly anyone in front of Freds, Café de la ferme so don't think too many are touring Combeynoy side.

Think that will be a very different picture come 16th Mad



https://www.serre-chevalier.com/fr/webcam-serre-chevalier-briancon-direct
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I just did a bit here this afternoon. I actually took a harder route up than I could have done. Much of the blue run down is pisted so it can be as hard or easy as you want to make it.

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Broken leg after an avalanche on Grapillon des Merles (chardo area Tignes) followed by a helo trip yesterday.

Not an area that would be controlled normally.
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chocksaway wrote:
Broken leg after an avalanche on Grapillon des Merles (chardo area Tignes) followed by a helo trip yesterday.

Not an area that would be controlled normally.


Jesus! Shocked All the best, obviously.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@chocksaway, is that you injured etc Shocked

How are you feeling about it all, post-event, frustrated or relieved?

I know I was very frustrated about being a dork at the time!

@Claude B, and looks good to get out and escape, though any gun-boats Laughing
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Quote:
Broken leg after an avalanche on Grapillon des Merles (chardo area Tignes) followed by a helo trip yesterday
I read it as happening to someone else - ie not chocksaway.... Puzzled But it is ambiguous...
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Not much snow around right now, so you'd think it'd be safe..........
2 skier-triggered avalanches here this weekend, one at Nevache, the other at Monetier, no fatalities, but both needed hospital treatment..........
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
https://www.ledauphine.com/societe/2020/12/13/isere-montagne-neige-meteo-c-est-de-la-folie-proche-de-grenoble-la-station-du-col-de-porte-prise-d-assaut-ce-dimanche

Same nearly everywhere around Grenoble. Fantastic snow conditions everywhere so people were keen to get out. Was at a trailhead called the Col du Coq this PM - cars everywhere, even people parking in people's driveways !

Traffic jam this afternoon at Chamrousse : snow + lots of cars, many without winter tires.

NO (as those irritating fact checkers like to say) Chamrousse is not open !



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Poster: A snowHead
Shocked Shocked Crazy busy. Far more subdued here Blush
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Wow, that is busy! Great photos though @davidof - the one on the slopes makes me really want to be there!
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Sorry folks, I'm in Yorkshire. I gave a fuller explanation of the event in the Tignes thread. Cut and paste fail Embarassed
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Italy has banned off piste skiing except with a mountain guide while they are considered an "orange risk zone" for Covid. https://www.sciaremag.it/notiziesci/altre-polemiche-in-valle-daosta-scialpinismo-solo-con-le-guide/
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Quote:
Sorry folks, I'm in Yorkshire
I'd be sorry to be in Yorkshire too! (Mind don't tell Mrs MA I said that, as she's a Tyke... wink)

Glad to hear all that you weren't avalanched - in the Yorkshire Dales or anywhere else! Laughing
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Watch this.
https://henrysavalanchetalk.com/skier-triggered-avalanche-courchevel-13th-december-2020/
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Quote:

Watch this.
https://henrysavalanchetalk.com/skier-triggered-avalanche-courchevel-13th-december-2020/


This is exactly why there is justification for banning ski touring in resorts right now. Unfortunately the few idiots spoil it for the majority.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
We were up at Col de Porte yesterday; it was rammed, just like the photo Davidoff linked to. And that was without sunshine (until late afternoon). A lot of people cross country skiing, a few alpine skiing, making use of the running magic carpet (not sure why that was allowed to be open), and stacks of lugers. A lot more ski tourers than you normally see, many of which didn't look very experienced.

Many on rackets too, we took ours but just ending up wandering on the path in our walking boots. As soon as you got a couple minutes away from resort, it was very quiet and beautiful on the forest paths with the trees covered in snow. A great day out after weeks of being stuck in the house; we rather stretched the 3 hour limit though...
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Sunset yesterday in the Chartreuse



Huge number of people on the road to the col du Coq and I've never seen the carpark and the road below so rammed. If you look at the clearing you can see 2 or 3 people walking up with sledges. The road had been flattened to a smooth piste by the evening.
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@davidof, that really is a very lovely photo. It doesn't make me envious in any way.




PS: One statement in this post is a complete lie.
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Beautiful photograph @davidof, I guess it'd make many want to visit.

Possibly the ramp up in visitors is part of an initial freedom to move around a little more, I think that's understandable. Perhaps the coming days will see a more levelled activity spread as people acclimatise more to responsibly use their "freedom" with care.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Snow was pretty soggy yesterday. It rained quite high (just light drizzle) and the clouds kept things humid, so not the best ski touring conditions. If that makes people feel a bit better. More rain incoming tomorrow.

Reports of a lot of new gear getting baptized on the buried rocks !
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It's very similar to what was happening here earlier in the year, with huge numbers of people launching themselves onto the water on SUPs and kayaks. Many of them without any experience - one friend overheard a couple unloading a kayak off the top of their car, very puzzled because the water was disappearing, even though there'd been plenty at the same time the week before. People were just so desperate to get out of their houses, and do something enjoyable in lovely surroundings. And of course, locals moaned and scoffed....
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@davidof, depends where you are referring to I suppose, very nice snow near Lac Leman yesterday, light and fluffy above 1400m, but still nice to slide on down to 1200m (on a piste / track)

And as the sun started to break through before midday it was one of the most beautiful ski touring days of the season for me.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
pam w wrote:
It's very similar to what was happening here earlier in the year, with huge numbers of people launching themselves onto the water on SUPs and kayaks.


SUPs were a big seller around here, lots of people at the Lac du Bourget pumping furiously on the things. Although Bourget is relatively safe for a SUP session. Funny they've been a slow burner for years then takeoff. The prices have come down a bit though.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
No mention of a ban on splitboarding though eh?! Wink
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Friends posted some nice pics of ski touring Cucumelle yesterday, and as you can see not exactly tracked out!

But as the photo below shows that face in front under the gasex can go if one was temped to take a steeper line rather than the mellow meadows.






As for SUPs reason for the price drop is cheapo Chineses inflatable ones - we bought two this year and we've used them a lot, jury is out on how long they'll last in the long run though.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Quote:

Bourget is relatively safe for a SUP session

As is Chichester Harbour, if you steer clear of the spring ebb anywhere near the entrance. But some locals really were very negative about the influx of outsiders. Without any irony they would look around, as they walked their dog(s) along the shoreline, and complain about the "overcrowding" ....

It would be good to think that one positive legacy of Covid is that many more people appreciate the joys of getting out and about, exerting yourself in beautiful surroundings and that you can often do that much closer to your own doorstep than you ever imagined.
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@mountainaddict, Oi, nowt wrong wi Yorkshire....
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polo wrote:
@davidof, depends where you are referring to I suppose, very nice snow near Lac Leman yesterday, light and fluffy above 1400m, but still nice to slide on down to 1200m (on a piste / track)


Indeed, great snow on Ouzon(1500m) , though slightly heavy at the very bottom of Muret (1100m).
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I wandered up, 500m+, to Crête this morning. The blue run is completely pisted now. Saw a dozen or more pisteurs skiing down as I trudged up, no more than a salut or wave.



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From ledauphine.com article following on the from those slides in Courchevel


Under these conditions, the Modane high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM) calls for caution. "Given the recent snowfall, it had been announced that avalanches could occur in our mountains," insists Warrant Officer Chaon. "We suspected that with the lack of triggering avalanches in the resorts, this could happen. Météo France had warned us. The high mountain gendarme notices that this is the first day of the season when several avalanches are taking place in Savoie. "We must relay a message of caution to the population," concludes the adjutant.

We will secure two or three trails for ski touring

Same message of caution from the mayor of Courchevel, Jean-Yves Pachod. Worried, but not surprised. “As the ski lifts were closed, a lot of people rode in sealskins. Some without any knowledge of ski touring. This group of young people, which triggered the avalanche in Courchevel, played the "fools". When we don't know, we don't do things like that! "

Like many resort mayors, Jean-Yves Pachod is considering a solution: offering people cross-country skiing “on small, easy routes, in places secured by the piste service, far from avalanche areas. "

In addition to the avalanche triggers organized by the ski patrollers, to secure the area and prevent snow accumulation, it therefore plans, from next weekend, and the start of the Christmas holidays, to open "two or three pistes. secure for those who would like to learn to ski touring. Afterwards, the mountain is vast, we cannot make everything secure, and we are not going to ban ski touring. "
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@davidof, indeed a lovely photo - would be interested in some of exposure details if you have them - did you under-expose much? curious as to the colour - it looks quite yellow on my laptop - only seen that in Africa, not europe...

as for the snow - I'm hoping common sense will prevail, I'd hate to be the mayor having to balance opening some routes, to allow a bit of space and freedom, v 'encouraging' people into the mountains when the usual protection is (quite reasonably) not happening.... I fear we will see more avalanches - and my gut feel is that we have heard about more, earlier, this season, than usual....
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Skinned up my local hill yesterday afternoon. Quite a few people out and about on a Sunday afternoon but most snow shoeing. Understandable as the snow cover was really 'limite'. Haven't had the courage to inspect the bases of my skis closely yet but a first ski of the season is always worth it. Have to say though I'd seriously consider a closed resort for the next outing just to have something less rocky to ski down. I was on the sunny versant too. Then again we may get more snow so we could forget about resorts entirely. Stay safe and slidy!

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BTW, if anybody knows how to get the pics to come out full width as most of you seem to have done, do say. I used the "Post Image" button but had no options I could make out to stop it sticking the pic over on the right hand side.
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