Snowpack in Italy and France this year?

[Pollyboating]

We're heading over to Italy and France this year from New Zealand. Any info on snow pack levels and likely flows in the valsesia valley and Briancon would be very much appreciated!

Polly

[clarky999]

Whole Alps are in tip top shape. Western Alps (Chamonix, Verbier) have ridiculously deep snowpacks at altitude, less so lower down. Probably include St Anton/Arlberg region in that. Main Tirol not quite so outrageous ('cos our dumpage happened more November/December then it slowed down a bit whereas the west has been continually hammered), but still well above average and MUCH better than the last 5-6 years.

Should be a bumper flow season pretty much everywhere (not sure about Dolomites/Sud Tirol though).

[Pollyboating]

Thanks v much for this info, appreciated! European melt timeframes seem less predictable than in the western US? Will polish the crystal ball for our trip starting mid-May... hopefully we get nice long season of good water rather than massive early season peak!

[Simon Westgarth]

The classics in the French Alps area of the Durance Valley have a very big snow pack this year. Piemonte equally so. Even in the eastern end of the Alps in the Soča Valley, the snow pack is excellent. Nothing to complain about for 2018.

Spring high water awaits so long as all things being equal. That means a cold April, and warm May. Still we could have at all coming in a few weeks, which will be quite exciting.

In Norway, the snowpack around Sjoa breaks all time records, well since records were started. Mega, mega, mega.

[Pollyboating]

Thanks Simon... great info. Particularly appreciate the prediction re a warm month in May!

[marmot]

Hi
Here in the Southern French Alps (Briançon area) we have had an amazing winter it has just kept coming, forecast is for a bit more snow tomorrow, depending on when it heats up, it should be in for big levels at the start of the season and probably the odd flood or to (so like it used to be), and hopefully a nice long season.

Bellow is a photo from today's ski tour up Tête des Lauzières which is just above Briançon showing it is still like winter here, more photos from the season here.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100015992867601

[Andrews]

Myself and some friends are heading to the alps the last week of May. Still undecided whether France or Italy. Anyone have an update on the snowpack and if any melt has started yet?

Anyone have ideas what the weather is normally like last week of May in either location?

Cheers

Andrew

[clarky999]

Tirol is flowing nicely already. No idea about other regions, sorry, other than Sven Lämmler makes Val Sesia look real good about now on Instagram.

[cathalferris]

Looks like the season has started, after those few days of really warm air.
https://www.rivermap.ch is a nice central location for seeing the current river gauges and short term trends. It's quite easy to see effect of the daily snowmelt, by the pronounced daily peaks and troughs in the graphs, as opposed to spikes from rain or the slow change of the background seeps from the water table.
It'll be interesting to see how much of the snowpack melts, and how long the season lasts. I have a suspicion that the levels will be high-high until mid-June at least.

In Briancon:

• The Ubaye is high at ~60 cumec.
• The Durance is also high at ~150 cumec.

In ValSesia:

• The Sesia is at medium levels at ~75cm
• The Mastallone, Sermenza, Egua, Sermenzina all at medium levels

In Soca valley:

• The Soca itself is reporting at a nice high 50 cumec at the moment, and the bunker run is high at 25 cumec

[jonnyabo]

Logistics question related to this thread

Has anyone cracked hiring a car in the alps (ideally Geneva) with roof rails guaranteed - so bring your own roof bars & boats works out?

Car hire companies contacted so far have been non-committal (rubbish).

Any advice welcome.

[Simon Westgarth]

Logistics question related to this thread

Has anyone cracked hiring a car in the alps (ideally Geneva) with roof rails guaranteed - so bring your own roof bars & boats works out?

Car hire companies contacted so far have been non-committal (rubbish).

Any advice welcome.

Past successes where I have hired an estate car. Before hitting the desk, I do a tour of the hire car's parking lot and find compatible car, and simply ash for that one. There are some problems with that approach, perhaps there is nothing compatible or the parking lot is miles away from the desk....

[jonnyabo]

Thanks Simon, we'll give that a go.

[clarky999]

Any thoughts on high water options around Verzasca/Val Sesia?

Was thinking about heading over from Tirol this weekend to get back in the habit of drops and higher boofs, but levels atm look a bit more 'boof or die' (or at least beater) than the usual waterpark style...

[Simon Westgarth]

Any thoughts on high water options around Verzasca/Val Sesia?

Was thinking about heading over from Tirol this weekend to get back in the habit of drops and higher boofs, but levels atm look a bit more 'boof or die' (or at least beater) than the usual waterpark style...

I saw on RiverApp that the lower altitude runs around Lake Maggiore were running high from rain fall, and so was the Verzasca. Sesia is dropping today, but much more rain is due on Thursday. Runs to the West like the Soana or the Stura's near Lanzo will be good, as too the Cervo.

In coming over the San Bernardino pass, hit the Moesa, see if the Verzasca is good if not the San Giovanni (Upper section is a classic) near Verbania, perhaps the legendary Strona (3 days of Class V) near Omegna or Cervo (2 sections, the gorge is ace) in Biella. If it is a total blow out Lanzo is the place, with the Strua di Grande, Strua di Viù and Ala di Strua, all kilometres of boulder garden boofing.

[clarky999]

Thanks Simon!

[Colin C]

Logistics question related to this thread

Has anyone cracked hiring a car in the alps (ideally Geneva) with roof rails guaranteed - so bring your own roof bars & boats works out?

Car hire companies contacted so far have been non-committal (rubbish).

Any advice welcome.

We hired a car from Geneva last year and Simons approach, might not work as the hire company we used was a bus ride away from the desk, and we asked for Scoda Octava estate cars and were given Mercs, which had the modern roof rails, so we used the Handy racks we brought with us.

Colin

[jonnyabo]

Thanks Colin, we've done just that. Cheers.

[Pollyboating]

Looks like quite a bit of rain in the next week in the Sesia valley. Are levels through the roof?

Fingers crossed the switch goes to sunshine next weekemc?

[Simon Westgarth]

Great water levels here in Valsesia at present.