“Thank you to the person who took this video of 'Le Haut des Suisses' in Courchevel
Here we see some skiers entering an area that is normally pisted and patrolled, but is not now due to COVID closures.

Why does it release? It is a potent combination that makes it so unstable.

A weak layer due to a long period of November dry cold weather and clear skies that led to the creation of a weak layer of ‘facets’ (snow grains that looks and feels a bit like rock salt – with no cohesion) on mainly on North facing slopes, but on many other slopes as well – not so much on slopes facing South’ish; we often say that these dry weather conditions rotted the old snow. The new snow sits on top of this. There is no skier compaction, so it is virgin new snow which is less stable. There is no ski patrol to blast the slopes.

Now going onto slopes that you are familiar with, when usually nothing happens due to skier compaction and piste security blasting, can be deceiving. The familiarity leads to complacency as you might head…