 Poster: A snowHead
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compostcorner - good thinking and yes some of the points Kenzie makes are certainly food for thought but in reality if they put a lift up from the bottom of the manchet where would it go... 1) towards the Rocher Du Charvet - problems as Kenzie says.... 2) if 'around the corner' of it towards the Grand Pre area then that is a LONG and 'complicated' lift to put in (€€€)... 3) towards the top of Olympique (if your gonna put a lift in it needs to finish at the top of somewhere in reality so finishing bottom of Fontaine Froid for example not really worth it!!) then that will deposit EVEN MORE skiers into a VERY BUSY area already! BUT I suspect the main reason for not putting something in is that there is not enough demand for it - there are not that many people who ski down to the bottom of the Manchet (Arcelle / Marmottes) runs even at busy times to warrant the investment... Sometimes the logistics of controlling an area is tricky too.... putting lift pylons on the face of the Charvet (which you would have to do) would be subject to avalanche danger too.
Todays update coming up...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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NEWS FLASH
A large slide across the road to Bourg means the road is currently blocked under 4m of snow - this could take a while to clear before the road can reopen - no-one was hurt or anything [b]BUT] crucially movement of snow like this will mean that almost certainly the road to and from Bourg will have to close (as will the road to Fornet etc) overnight and we could have some serious issues with flow of traffic (let alone movement of skiers etc) tomorrow morning - arghhhhhhhhhhhhh
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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That should be ok with winter tyres surely?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@red 27, 
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A good fwd car with snow socks should be enough.....
Seriously though, very pleased nobody was hurt - that looks a bit close for comfort.
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Hey Steve, I’m sure this is a simple question but why is dry snow “great”? (quote from your periscope)
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@red 27, or for a Parisian in an X5 with summer tyres 
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| CallumDA wrote: |
| Hey Steve, I’m sure this is a simple question but why is dry snow “great”? (quote from your periscope) |
It’s much nicer to ski off-piste in dry snow than it is to ski in wet snow. The skis move through the snow much more easily, are much less likely to be unintentionally diverted, sink, grab, etc.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Steve Angus wrote: |
| I suspect the main reason for not putting something in is that there is not enough demand for it - there are not that many people who ski down to the bottom of the Manchet (Arcelle / Marmottes) runs even at busy times to warrant the investment... |
That's a bit chicken and egg though. We're not really talking about a lift to take people out from the bottom of Arcelle, it would be about adding a faster route from the Solaise area to the Olympique area (the lift could possibly feed into Fontaine Froide, similar to Fresse/Bollin). It would also be nice to have a piste going the other way - bottom of Fontaine Froide to bottom of Manchet. To really make sense as a link however you'd want the option of taking blue pistes both ways, but I don't think that would be possible.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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at the moment to get from solaise to belevarde you have go down to the town and then go back up again, its not that big a deal but something like the vanoise express in la plagne/les arcs would be handy to connect the two at a higher level
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CallumDA - yes as rob@rar has said but also it is more volumous so the snow is 'deeper' for a given amount of snowfall... there are downsides though like more likely to be blown about by the wind etc! But generally when you hear people talk about champagne powder and you get the snow flying over the head as a skier passes through it off piste it is light 'dry' powder they are skiing in.
thelem - yes it would be faster but I dont think it would be cost effective for the resort... also as I said that slope on the charvet is avalanche prone therefore placing the pylons would be costly and tricky ... the piste idea would suffer from the same problems towards the Manchet... but certainly if you were going to do it both ways then it would need to be a blue piste at most! But yes it is always a chicken and egg situation these sorts of things.
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You know it makes sense.
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A bit of a scare this morning at Hotel Kandahar in Val d'Isere apparently. Some friends over for the Doctors Conference are staying in the apartments behind it and came upon the scene as it was ending. There is an absolutely massive mound of snow in front of the apartments and some kids climbed up and were playing when one of them disappeared under the snow! Screaming could be heard for a few minutes then deafening silence. Adults in absolute panic unable to climb up. I don't think anyone thought of calling for help. The kid was pulled out ok, but OMG! what a fright.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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No more, please no more!
We awoke to yet more snow and it was falling thick and fast but unfortunately the winds were pretty strong... certainly at altitude!
My morning lesson was running late but bless him as they didnt get in until well after midnight and still had to sort out rental gear before the 9am lesson... however it was a good thing that they were late as nothing was turning until a little after 9am... in fact it was strange as the savonnette lift seems to have derailed which meant that there was no chance that was going to run.... anyway whilst I was waiting for them to arrive I was hearing on the instructor / guide / pisteur grapevine that one of the reasons that the Olympique and the Funival were going to be very late opening was that there was so much snow you could not get in / out the top end of said lifts and piste bashers and snow clearers were going to be take several hours to do necessary clearing and that was exlcluding any avalanche control work that also needed doing.
Anyway we had a jolly good morning despite the queues for the Village lift and bearing in mind Kevin had only skied for a couple of hours on an artificial slope there was amazing progress and by the end coming down the steep side of the Village - awesome!
I spent the afternoon shared between watching the skiing on TV - nice result Dace - just get 2 runs linked together and another podium is within reach! We also had a friend around for a cuppa and it was a generally relaxing afternoon.
At 5pm we headed down (a few colleagues and I) to Les Boisses for our annual SAF heli training (so we can run heli ski trips)... cutting a frustrating story short they never turned up so it was a wasted trip - arghhh!
So that brings you more or less up to date - the weather has been more or less shocking all day - the 125km/h winds have slowly but surely calmed down but the snow has been persistent. The security measures in place mean the road to Bourg is shut this evening... the Fornet has been cut off (the pre-cursor slides that come down to the Fornet outdoor car park usually means a 'biggie' is ready to come down across the road so until either that happens or they can heli blast the Fornet is likely to remain cut off!) and they are pretty sure it could be a 5/5 black flag day again tomorrow. School etc has been cancelled tomorrow etc.
However all in all the problems are much greater - the resort can't keep up with the clearing that needs to be done, car parks are snowbound so they can't clear them and we are running out of parking spaces etc.... the roads are getting narrower, the tipping of snow into the Isere river is getting to the point that snow bridges are starting to form and the temps going up and down with winds all over the place is making the 'picture' of avalanche prediction really hard to work out... the resort are chasing their tale and hopefully we will get a few days of calm to sort things out a little... it seems as if we are having a council meeting for the security of the resort every 5 minutes at the moment and I have lost count of how many 'closed' days / black flag days we had!
Anyway lets see what chaos we have to deal with tomorrow!
In other news..... check out this video - same person who posted the video the other day when they opened their front door - it is getting SILLY there now.... dangerous...
https://www.facebook.com/ben.cashford/videos/10155608945720141/
And whilst we are talking videos I had a staring (thats not the correct word I dont think) role in this weeks TDC snow report:
https://www.facebook.com/tdcski/videos/10156026048248607/
My periscope from today!
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1djGXMNXRWLJZ
TTFN
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The volume of snow is INCREDIBLE !!, we were out for the short 5 day week from 2nd to 9th January, 4 days skiing of which we had two black flag days. The same week last year we had clear blue skies all week !! Back out at half term and the long range forecast, for what it's worth !! looks a lot better - the snow has to stop at some point ! One of our party is booked with Lena for the week, and we are hoping to come out again end of March, please apologise to Claire, we still haven't confirmed Tilly's lessons - job for tomorrow ! Take care and keep up the good work Steve !!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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How's your thumb @Steve Angus, ?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Seeing news that there was a slide on the last Piste into Brev.
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Just seen a picture from Susan @ Snowberry of a rugby pitch somewhere in Val where they are sitting on the crossbar of the goalposts 
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scorchio - yes the snow does have to stop you're right... but perhaps not until the Summer!!!! I have passed the message on to Clare.
adithorp - thanks.... its pretty much healed now... just a little bruising now thats all!
tangowaggon - its incredible isnt it... that and the car photo are my favourite so far although have another good one to post in a moment too!
Sowler - ? possibly - not heard anything about it though!
orange - ill post that photo in a moment
michaelbury17 - thank you... agreed re the car photo!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Love the rugby pitch photo. Another 50cm due Friday!
I'm out Saturday for 4 days. Can't wait.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Thanks Steve. I had thought you must have gone to bed already. Great pics.
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No problems with sound watching it here. Enjoying your updates. Won't be out there until April (got La Thuile and PDS first) but will be watching this thread with interest until then.
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You know it makes sense.
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Good god that’s a half term queue. Just as well they replaced the Datcha. 😄
Thanks for the updates. 7 weeks and counting.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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It was me commenting about the sound - strange as I was on wifi so shouldn't have been an issue my end but maybe it was somehow. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Just booked a last minute trip so also heading out on Saturday.
That lift queue at Datcha also surprised me. Is that normal during this time of year? Was hoping next week would be quiet.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| axci wrote: |
Just booked a last minute trip so also heading out on Saturday.
That lift queue at Datcha also surprised me. Is that normal during this time of year? Was hoping next week would be quiet. |
Not normal for January, but then nor are the snow conditions. As they open up more of the Espace the queues will (hopefully for you) get back to normal.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| axci wrote: |
Just booked a last minute trip so also heading out on Saturday.
That lift queue at Datcha also surprised me. Is that normal during this time of year? Was hoping next week would be quiet. |
no its not normal, its off peak season, so should be no queues, many pistes are closed due to avalanche risk, as a result people are being crammed into a few pistes. Other lifts will open as they clear the avalanche risk, and it will spread the crowds out across the resort.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Jehu - ha ha - not quite... and am writing a little earlier this evening!
swiftoid - all good!
Timg60 - more than HT queues... yes indeed thank goodness its the new Datcha!
nemesys - hope it was better today!
axci - should be a good trip! NO that is totally 'un' normal... as Kenzie and Sack the Juggler have said it is because there has not been much open but little by little they are getting stuff running and the queues were non existent again today - fear not... remember that photo was 3 days ago now!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thanks for the reassurance. Can't wait! 
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I was looking at the mountain in the La Daille video a couple of weeks ago when it was snowing quite hard (16th Jan). It was in a state of permanent avalanche, with rivers of snow running down it.
Fascinating to watch.
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A tricky day
One thing is for sure in this job is that half the 'battle' is managing people, expectations and pretty much everything else apart from the actual job of delivering information to make people better. You come across all sorts of people, situations and so on and so forth on this job. People 'arrive' in front of you in different 'ways'.
So this morning was one of those situations... turns out the two guys (should have been a third but ill talk about that in a second) were here on a stag do and their friend had booked them lessons. One guy had told his friend that he must be a beginner as he had not skied since he was teenager... but a weeks experience then was a weeks experience. So this meant that he wasnt a beginner..... in comparison to his friend who had done a couple of hours in total in a snow dome... so this was going to be an interesting lesson. Without blowing my own trumpet too much I am a pretty experienced instructor to managing the situation and keeping both developing took some skill but trying to juggle the situation was tricky. However I think I pulled it off as they both kept moving working on things and by the end of the session I had the lower level guy coming down the Madelaine which in itself is an awesome achievement for anyone on essentially you 1st day of skiing and the other guy we did a couple of short blues off the Madelaine. It was a case of give one of them an exercise and send them off for a run whilst I worked with the other one... then swap over! It turned out alright in the end!
The afternoon was once again a tricky people management situation with my seasonnaires... seasonnaires are generally quite happy to ski in a certain way with a certain attitude but trying to make them better requires you the instructor to change their approach to what good skiing is and educate them into approaching things in different ways... for example (and just as an example) you can't talk too much when you are teaching them - for no other reason other than they are used to boming around no stop and in doing so keeping warm... but they never seem to be wearing enough clothes so if you talk for too long they are too cold... most other adults because they are lesser mountain fit more often than not are sweating away and too hot when you teach them AND being not used to the altitude are often out of breath so slowing things down is good. So anyway this afternoon it was a man management exercise more than anything... some people want more skiing and less technical input where as others need encouragement as they have had a fall or two... then as you work on that another person seems to getting confused about what they should be doing to get better... its all a constant juggling act.
So as a case study here it goes to show that this job is easy (the teaching and demonstrating bit) but it is the wrapping around the teaching bit that requires practice and dare I say it skill!
So that was my teaching day...
We had a nice family meal this evening and now I am back in front of the laptop catching up with a few things before having a good sleep. Tomorrow is a funny one as I have the morning off but am teaching in the afternoon (the people from this morning have asked to ski with me again in the afternoon - eek!)
Anyway not much else to report from today. Overcast and a hint of a retour blowing in but for the most part just not great light. Perhaps some snow overnight but I'm not convinced it will snow.
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1YqKDLkBEXLKV
YES that is grass... the wind has move all the snow that has fallen on this ridge away to other places!
TTFN
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Steve are you able to say why the "up and over lift" is closed? Damaged by the conditions? Any idea when it might open?
Am really enjoying your posts - thanks!
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@carfla7, it was turning this afternoon so they are clearly getting nearer to full fitness!
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FAQ
