Mud & Landslides After Yesterdays Storms
The pattern of hot weather during the day & late afternoon storms is set to continue
Over the past week or so we have been experiencing the extremes of mountain weather here in Chamonix. Sticky hot days and thunderous stormy evenings.
After the recent mud and landslides in the valley at the start of May, it should come as no shock that the rain this week has caused yet more damage. Luckily nothing on the scale that we saw last month but never the less we would urge people to be cautious if they are hiking in the afternoons and to be aware of changes to paths and rivers.
Yesterdays rain was heavy enough to destabilise the earth on the Brevent side of the valley and saw several houses on Route des Pecles surrounded in mud and debris. The area worst hit was around the Military School (EMHM), with one chalet in particular seeing mud cover the rear wall half way up to the first floor. The mud continued to descend onto the road itself but has since been cleared away and the area is passable once again.
The forest area above this is home to the popular Petit Balcon Sud which has also seen numerous slides of varying size. Some parts of the path have been covered over by rock and others are trickier to navigate than before. Care should be taken when crossing these points as the rock, boulders and mud will still be loose. With further rain and thunder storms predicted this week we would advise extreme caution in the mountain and on the valley paths.
