Both Savoie and Isère on orange alert for snow, ice and avalanches, caution on the roads and slopes

Monday 23rd December 2024 08:28 AM

Many people headed to the Alps to celebrate the holidays in the mountains. But be careful of the risks of snow, ice and avalanches. Both Savoie and Isère are still on orange alert all day. Access to the stations is also a little tricky.

Many people had the idea to spend the holidays in the mountains this year and it shows. Access to certain resorts is somewhat tricky, such as in Haute-Savoie, notably in the Carroz resort, in the Grand Massif, where the climb to an altitude of 1,200 meters is not easy.

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Hence a great mobilization of the municipality's services, explains Jérôme Pralong, the deputy in charge of roads: “All the machines are out in order to clear all the roads so that all users can access all parts of the road. the station, via the gendarmerie services, in particular, who come to arrest people upstream, who lack equipment or who do not know how to equip themselves correctly with the chains. We guide them, we help them and we do so. so that they can drive safely on the roads.

Avalanche risk is four out of five in the Alps

Roads which remain slippery, even if it is true that the majority of holidaymakers arrived yesterday. But once on skis, watch out for avalanches. This is another big concern for resorts with its heavy snowfall. The avalanche risk is currently four out of five in the Alps. Hence the need in many places to carry out so-called preventive triggering. This was the case all this morning in Les Carroz.

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“In total, on the Grand Massif this morning, there must have been around sixty preventive triggers. The avalanche trigger is there to try to have a breaking effect, which cuts the layers between them and to purge the slopes”, explains Frédéric Huart, director of the ski lifts. “There, we are on nearly 50 centimeters of fresh snow at 1,800m. We will find a little more than 60, 70 cm at 2,500 meters of altitude and we still have snow all day. These are falls of snow which are significant.

Reason for these preventive triggering of avalanches which aim to secure the ski area, therefore the open slopes, but obviously not the off-piste sector which is always strictly not recommended.