Danger rating of 5 (out of 5) across much of the Alps today. Henry talks about following the resort safety advice. Risks are likely to increase today as the temperature rises bringing rain below 2000m leading to an increase in natural avalanches.
Transcript of Audio
Hi everyone. Henry here again reporting from Henry here reporting from the French Alps the northern French Alps and the Department of Savoi here. There’s tons and tons of snow. And just to give you an update of some of the more. Interesting evolutions in the last couple of days. Basically what we’re looking at is is a danger rating of five in all of itself. That’s basically the Chamonix area around through port. So they and all that. For those of you not familiar with the area we’re also looking at a danger rating of 5 in the Tarantella part of Savoi. And also a danger rating of 5 all the way through places in Switzerland like Zormat. Of course Perry Zermatt all the way up to Engelberg and then off east of Engelberg as well. And the point I wanted to make here is that we have the danger rating of 5.
The main thing advice that I can give is to follow the the the the closures of roads and things like that that the local town authorities local authorities are putting into place for your protection. And the reason I mention that is because basically there’s just tons and tons of people you’ll see walking around on the closed roads and just to give you put things in perspective if you’re walking around in a closed road or you’re not applying basic risk reduction measures for avalanches you’re you’re taking a risk that’s higher than BASE jumping. The big difference is that when you talk about avalanches nothing happens most of the time nothing happens. Most of the time and avalanches and that’s the biggest thing that all of us are confronted with in terms of avalanche awareness. Professionals just like myself to those of you who are enjoying skiing and climbing et cetera in areas where avalanches can be a problem.
If you’re if you’re applying risk reduction measures it can be surprisingly safe. No more dangerous than driving for a few hours a day. Where you live. The problem is is that since most the time nothing happens and we tend to discount or really underestimate the danger and that’s why you see lots of people walking along the roads closed roads and skiing down close runs and not really applying these risk reduction measures. And so the differences with base jumping for example when you’re up there and you see a huge void in front of you massive cliff hundreds and hundreds of metres. You get the fear and when you look around you know look around me behind me here there’s you know it doesn’t look that dangerous and it looks kind of nice and cozy snow and everything.
So for all of us and my tip of the day is for all of us in these places where there is danger rating of 5 which is extreme the highest level of avalanche danger just a bay the local authorities are working really hard to keep you safe. And that’s my biggest piece of tape for the day. And I will add onto that a lot of you are in the areas where there’s danger for the ski areas are going to open up and things and I think most of these places where there’s a danger rating for it’s bordering on a five just enjoy the low hanging fruit. Have fun out there and don’t go on the slopes that are steeper than 30 degrees 30 degrees is that threshold where but where avalanche slab can release any anything that could be of any consequence to you anyway.
And what does that mean. It’s about the steepness of a of a steep part of a red run in Europe. Two black runs steepness and unless you really really know what you’re doing then stick to the 30-degree slopes or less steep part of steepest part of a black run the steepest part of a red run to black runs steepness. The other thing I’ll just add on to just for the basic conditions right now. Basic conditions right now are a little bit different than the last snow storm we had where it started out with rain and really heavy snow and ended up with colder snow that ended up on Friday and so we had the colder snow on top of the heavier snow that came down during the during the storm.
Now it’s a bit the opposite. We’ve had sort of relatively lower temperatures still only not that far below freezing so minus 4 minus 5 2000 meters. But now it’s going to rise and up to about freezing and even rain up to about 2000 meters and that’s true most of the areas in the northern French Alps so there’s a danger rating of 4 5. And all the way through Switzerland where there’s a very high danger rating. So that’s going to create a lot of natural avalanches and a lot of big avalanches as well a little different than the last storm. So that’s that. And looks like things are going to clear up tomorrow. So my advice for once the ski areas and slopes become visible and a great snow looks like it’s accessible. Stick to the slopes of 30 degrees and less. And it looks like going to have a nice few fairly clear days through Thursday and snow again on Friday. Have fun be safe out there.
Listen to what the local authorities are telling you and just follow the closures where you are and don’t take any unnecessary risks.