Snow finally hits the Alps but brings a threat of Avalanches by Matt Taylor
After a long, dry autumn, skiers and snowboarders were thirsty for fresh snow. Their prayers were answered when 40 to 70 cm fell over the course of Monday and Tuesday. The French, Swiss, Italian, German and Austrian Alps received 2 feet (over 60 cms) or more at higher elevations over the last few days.
Good news for ski resorts which had kept operating over the Christmas holiday period largely on man-made snow, but rescue workers, on alert since Monday, scrutinized the ski slopes with foreboding.
Avalanche warnings, prompted by high winds causing drifts, were posted on Wednesday for the northern and some western parts of the Swiss Alps and western regions of the Austrian Alps. Three off-piste skiers were killed on Wednesday in snowslides in the French Alps, taking the avalanche death toll in the region to four since the start of the week. The events that have killed four men over the last couple of days were only too predictable - considerable fresh snow and strong winds on a very variable base of icy crust or non-cohesive snow. The ideal recipe for avalanches.
More snow is forecast, and the avalanche alert in the French Alps has been set at 4 on a scale of 5.
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