Report 13th May
Snow continues to fall at altitude and skis or snow shoes are essential for the approaches. There has been little activity these last few days due to the bad weather, though some people are still ski touring, mainly in the Buet and Emosson areas.
Concerning the Mont Blanc massive, a lot of snow has fallen recently and this is likely to be affected by the strong winds forecast for this weekend, take care!
Allow at least 30 mins of walking before you can put on the skis to gain the Argentière basin.
The hut wardens have reported the following levels of new snow:
- Couvercle: 30 to 40cm of wet snow.
- Plan de l’Aiguille: 30cm of heavy snow.
- Cosmiques: 80cm during the last 2 days.
- Torino: 1m of fresh, windblown snow since Monday.
- Grands Mulets: 50cm during the last 2 days.
- Conscrits: about 50cm of fresh snow, rapidly become wet.
Not much has changed since the report last week for the hikers. The lakes and paths at altitude remain snowed over and dangerous in places. It is recommended that walkers this weekend restrict their activities to below 2000m.
A lot of trail runners want to reconnoitre future races but for the moment the routes at altitude have far too much snow. A list of currently “open” trails is available on the site www.valleedutrail.com .
There has been a landslip at the level of Nant Favre making the Sentier des Gardes impassable in this area and there is a potential risk on the Petit Balcon du Sud below. More information will follow once the weather improves, but for the moment please avoid this sector