Huge avalanche near Bonneval sur Arc

Bonneval sur Arc could not be reached last Tuesday, due to a huge avalanche. An immense avalanche came down between Bessans and Bonneval , blocking the D920, the road between both villages. As a result, the 250 inhabitants of Bonneval sur Arc couldn’t leave the village.

It is not the first time that Bonneval has been cut off from the outside world. There are several avalanche paths left and right of the D902 and if you’ve been to Bonneval you’ve probably seen avalanche debris left and right of the road. The faces are often steeper than 40 degrees on both sides of the road. If the snow starts to slide here, a lot of snow starts to come down. Check out the slope angle map of the place where the avalanche came down. The faces on the left and right are colored red and purple, which means that they are more than 45 degrees steep.

Due to the vulnerability of this route, it’s temporarily closed pretty often. The inhabitants of Bonneval are used to it, but an avalanche like the one that came down on Tuesday is exceptional. It’s been 30 years ago since such a large avalanche came down.

The road has been opened again. Check out the amount of snow. Cars drive between a wall of snow that is sometimes 7 to 10 meters high! A road has been made through a wall of snow that is unreal over a length of 250 meters.