 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Oh Lord, that does look terrible. What complete carnage.
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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?
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I have stayed at the camp site in La Berade. It was a pretty idyllic quiet mountain valley with "backdoor" access to some well known climbs. Always disturbing to see how quiet mountain streams can turn into life threatening raging torrents in the blink of an eye.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Wow, incredible scenes.
We cycled up to the village a couple summers ago, the day before we rode the Marmotte; it is a lovely ride, and arguably far more attractive than AdH.
The road from the valley follows the river through steep sided terrain, and even then the river seemed pretty racey in ‘normal’ summer conditions, lots of white water, fast flowing, so I can’t imagine what it must be like now.
Presumably the plentiful snow late season has meant that there has been more to melt in a short period of time as soon as the temps picked up/rains came?!?
Thankfully there doesn’t seem to be any casualties.
..Nick
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I seem to remember doing a via ferrata along the river gorge somewhat downstream of La Berade, would not be a good place at the moment!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Weathercam, pretty amazing photos and video, so awful for the people living there. Thank you for posting.
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We have just returned from France - we were in Venosc Wednesday night and decided to leave Thursday morning after looking at the forecast and weren't getting a good feeling about the rising ferocity of the rivers. La Romanche was raging as we drove towards Grenoble and later saw some footage from the river running through Livet-et-Gavet. Utter devastation in St-Christophe-en-Oisans and really feel for the community.
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| WishIWasSkiing wrote: |
| We have just returned from France - we were in Venosc Wednesday night and decided to leave Thursday morning after looking at the forecast and weren't getting a good feeling about the rising ferocity of the rivers. La Romanche was raging as we drove towards Grenoble and later saw some footage from the river running through Livet-et-Gavet. Utter devastation in St-Christophe-en-Oisans and really feel for the community. |
I think you got out just in time. Charlotte Swift (Easiski) who lives in Venosc posted the other day on Facebook that the D530 road down in the lower part between Venosc and Les Ougiers close to the river was washed away so there is currently no vehicular access between Venosc and LDA or Bourg d'Oisans. It also took out her fibre internet connection. She said that they're hoping the road will be reopened by Friday.....
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I have to admit to being quite fascinated when it comes to Les glissements de terrain / landslides / flash floods, as over the years I've witnessed the amazing devastation / massive movement of debris that occurs; and in some cases it is the equivalent of an avalanche of the winter variety, engulfing a village.
Whilst here in the valley of Serre Chevalier over the last century or so, and more recently as the various villages expanded due to becoming ski resorts many of the torrents running into the valley close to villages have been redirected and or damned due, and there's a serious 550 page document outlining all the aspects that might affect any potential flooding - and if you're into your geography/geology you'll love it!
Torrents et torrentialité dans la vallée de la Guisane - Contribution d’une étude géographique à la gestion durable du risque torrentiel à Serre-Chevalier
However, as we know episodes still unfortunately occur, and just maybe certain areas are overlooked, or as classed as not endangering life, such 8km behind us as the crow flies in Nevache where it's not uncommon for 2km of the road to be blocked by landslides that carry debris through the forest across the road in a number of places.
Just 1km across from us is the village of Le Bez and in 1995 they too suffered from the effects of a flash-flood.
The image below is taken from the research report above
Last Sunday we rode over to Vallouise, below Puy St Vincent to see what had happened there as video and picture showed a fair amount of carnage with one car disappearing from the parking area as the car park was ripped away by the river.
And then just up the road from us in Le Casset the whole parking area 36hrs later was still under a raging river.
But what I find amazing is how quick the local Marie's act, I took this image of a digger working some 18hrs after the worst of the storm.
If that had been in the UK there would have first been an assessment of necessary works, then a health and safety appraisal then all the work would have been carried out under the strict supervision of a structural engineer etc etc probably six months later, but here this guy was just getting on with it ASAP and doing what he thought was necessary and the road will probably be back open, although one way in time for the holidays, and stuff like this happens all the time and the turn around, be it building new bridges/roads is quite amazing, even with two hours for lunch 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Alpinebear, wow, that photo of the river in Bourg d'Oisans shows how vulnerable those houses were if the river level had risen just a bit higher! 
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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.
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@weathercam, I know that the river running through La Salle from Le Bez flooded in about 94 maybe 96? It flooded the Hotel Frejus opp the old telecabine and various other places.
Shocking scenes and a very Dynamic landscape.
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Similar carnage across northern Italy & southern Switzerland. Shocking images doing the rounds on YouTube and Instagram. Cervinia had a bad dose of mud and slurry down one of the main streets.
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