Rhemes Valley

In particular along the border with France and along the border with Switzerland the avalanche prone locations are more widespread and the danger is slightly greater.

In particular along the border with France and along the border with Switzerland the avalanche prone locations are more widespread and the danger is slightly greater.

Weak layers in the old snowpack necessitate caution. Even single winter sport participants can release avalanches. They can be triggered in deep layers of the snowpack and reach large size in isolated cases. Remotely triggered avalanches are possible. Whumpfing sounds and the formation of shooting cracks when stepping on the snowpack serve as an alarm sign. As a consequence of new snow and wind the avalanche prone locations will become more prevalent in the afternoon. The soft wind slabs will become increasingly prone to triggering in particular on north to east to south facing aspects. As the snowfall becomes more intense individual natural avalanches are possible as the day progresses, even medium-sized ones.

Tuesday: 20 to 40 cm of snow will fall above approximately 1600 m. The fresh snow and especially the wind-blown snow drifts, both soft and hard, cover a thin layer of old snow and partly also surface hoar. In some cases the wind slabs have bonded poorly with the old snowpack. Faceted weak layers exist in the old snowpack in particular on west, north and east facing slopes. Since Friday on very steep slopes several medium-sized and, in isolated cases, large avalanches occurred naturally. Some small and medium-sized slab avalanches have been released by people in the last three days.

The avalanche danger will increase quickly during the day. The large quantity of fresh snow as well as the wind slabs that are forming in all aspects represent the main danger.