ISSW 2013: October 7-11
Grenoble, France
​
​
Co-chairs: Jean Faure, Dominique Letang & Florence Naaim
​
740 Participants; 113 Papers; 36 Countries
The second European ISSW was held in Grenoble, France supported by three French Scientific Organizations: ANENA, IRSTEA, and Meteo-France. Participants from 36 countries (the most to ever to attend an ISSW) listened to 113 oral presentation in Congress Center ALPEXPO. The center accommodated 250 posters. Organizers encouraged participation by practioners and attendance was split between 43% Researchers and 57% Practitioners. 46% of attendees were from France; 8.5% from Switzerland; 7% from Italy; 10% from Canada and USA.
​
Oral presentations were translated into French, German, English, and Italian allowing most speakers to present in their preferred language. Sessions ran from 8AM until about 6PM except on field trip day. Each afternoon had an extended break that allowed viewing and discussion of the posters which remained up all week. Each day ended with a social hour.
​
Topics included Global Snow Properties, Snow Hydrology and Ecology, Avalanche Dynamics and Hazard Mapping, Crisis Management, and the Impact of Climate Change among others. On Thursday afternoon a Workshop on Snow and Avalanche Test Sites with a dozen oral presentations was held concurrently with the regular Oral Papers and Posters.
​
The field trip was to Chamonix-Mont Blanc area. Excursions were offered to view the Taconnaz Avalanche Defense Structures and Avalanche Road Defenses and hiking and viewing opportunities at the Aiguille du Midi and Montenvers. Clouds blanketed the valleys and obscured some of the potential destinations but the Aiguille du Midi cable car dropped participants off in the sunshine with a perfect view of Mont Blanc.
​
Divas night on Monday had so many women attend that it filled the restaurant so it was not possible to have men attend later. TAS provided an evening visit to their factory on Tuesday. At the Banquet on Thursday night, the movie Nat & Co. was shown telling the story of local group who had banded together in Grenoble to support their friend Nathanael Schaeffer who was paralyzed in an avalanche accident. Nathanael and members of the group spoke. The evening was capped off by the first ever ISSW fireworks display outside ALPEXPO.
​