 Poster: A snowHead
|
Excited to be arriving on Saturday in the 4 Vallees now 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
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?
|
Now that the sector/lifts appear to be open, can I ask 4 Vallees old hands about the Plan du Fou itinerary; it's rated as medium difficulty on the Nendaz website and almost appears pisted at the bottom on the webcam today. How difficult is it to follow and is it particularly tough?
Any assistance is much appreciated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
@LOTA, it is not as long as Chassoure, but the top section is pretty flippin steep! Gets very moguled too.
Stay well to skier's right to have a less difficult line.
The cable car is not just a way down for chickens  Don't feel you have to do it!
The black further down is really not very black at all, I think that is just TeleNendaz thinking they have to have a designated black or two to be taken seriously. Not difficult in snow like they have now, would be tricky if it was icy as the camber is a bit off angle.
There are some nice on and off piste routes down from the top of PdF to Siviez now that the snow is good. Very south facing so those are the first to ge when it warms up.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
@rungsp, thank you. It's not me, of course, but others I'll be with who might be a bit nervous about it!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
The top section is steep but other than that it's a relatively easy route. The most common problem with it is a crappy snow due to its altitude and aspect. But at the moment it's rather good - we went there on the 24th after lifts from Nendaz had been shut for a week and it was a pleasure to ski.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Is the itinerary the one straight under the cable car?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yep
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
@LOTA, for what it's worth, I think Plan du Fou is a harder itinerary than Chassoure. Although it's not as long, it gets very moguled and is not easy to enter or traverse. Once you are half way down it flattens out and get easier(ish)...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@Steve Sparks, in that case it's always been pretty good when I've done it. Fairly smooth (if bony) at the top and bumps once the gradient drops. Worth a bash
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
On the only occasion that I have skied it, I recall there is a flatish, almost road section from the top, on the right, to about 1/3 of the way down taking out the steepest part . The moguls were big and solid but the black run bellow it was not that bad.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
That path may be less steep, but I think it's usually icy. The itinerary's nicer I think
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A few Cham-based snowHeads did a day trip to Verbier yesterday for a quick whip around. We had jbob to guide us, who is a walking encyclopaedia of the Chamonix and Verbier areas.
The pistes are holding out but were scraped down to boilerplate and ice by the end of the day when we did the home runs back down to Le Chable along with the hordes (it was safer and more fun to ski the mogulled between- and side-piste bits). Top of Mont Fort still has some soft and grippy snow and the Gentianes-Tortin itinerary is about the same, so was good fun.
Wherever we looked we could see signs of avalanches, some with substantial crowns.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable day but Verbier, like Chamonix, needs snowfall soon!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
Prarion, Nendaz opened at last at the end of last week, so all 4 Vallees links open at last.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
@Swissie, I wonder if that's a record for latest opening, or have there been seasons when they've never made it?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
As I have posted before, the situation with Prarion is a joke and is the biggest problem with Nendaz. I have always wondered why they don't extend the Prarion chair all the way to the Plan du Fou Cablecar (or even to the top of Plan du Fou!!!!)? I know its all about the old trees in the fields...but really???????
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
@Steve Sparks, Can't ever recall it being opened so late, only closed early. @1556garyt, It is daft, but I can't see it being resolved, trees, conservation etc etc. We've had to fight to get a road which is disintegrating, resurfaced, the commune said it was classified as 'woods but have finally agreed, but we all have to pay to have it done between us.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
@Zero_G, you could ski to Le Chable from the Verbier side?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Mosha Marc, I don't have a piste map but thinking about it, we started from the end of the Gentianes-Tortin itinerary (which is 4 Vallées, I think) and there was a cable car at the start, a whole lot skiing, then a gondola from somewhere to Le Chable. So not the home run to Le Chable, it was the home run to the place from which we took the gondola to Le Chable. There may even have been a chairlift uplift in there but it's difficult to separate the homeward journey from the rest of the day... it's a big area with which I am not at all familiar.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Sounds like you went down to Medran and then downloaded to Le Chable Zero_G
You can't ski down to Le Chable without seriously risking your bases and edges at the moment!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Pistes are near perfect top to bottom.
Everything racked out off piste.
Not crowded at all, even the car park in Le Chable was half full which is odd on a school holidays weekend
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Snowed very lightly for most of the day in Nendaz.
Pistes in Nendaz are in good shape albeit that Prarion is not happy and is the worst I've seen it at this time of the year in the last 5 or 6 years.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@1556garyt, can you expand on what you mean by 'not happy'? Thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
Prarion is in terrible shape! As you may know it directly sun facing and has no snow making because of the old trees (!) in the vicinity. The run was only able to be opened 2 weeks ago and if there isn't some more snow soon, they'll be closing it again! I've seen the run like this in late March but not in mid-Feb.
Also skied Mont Fort and Gentienes yesterday. Snow was nice albeit that there was much less snow than is usual for this time of the years... Even on Gentienes one was having to watch out for lots of exposed rocks....
As I said in my previous post, this is the poorest mid-Feb conditions I have seen in 8 years of coming here...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@1556garyt, sad but true...
Verbier and Savolyeres pistes are all full covered, but there is proper, glassy, ice lurking under the piste-bashers best efforts and in patches the snow gets scraped off and reveals that ice.
The good news is that there are not many such patches.
The off piste it utterly tracked out. Nice grippy chalky stuff on north facing aspects.
As @1556garyt says though the coverage is a lot thinner than normal...and from what I hear Verbier is in relative terms doing very well!
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
Spent the morning playing "dodge the rocks" on Gentienes. - would have preferred being in hire skis! Pistes are getting very, very glassy I a number of spots.
Weekends predicted snow can't come soon enough.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
We were at Bruson today.
Very quiet and pistes in super condition. Polished in places but always enough looser snow on top to give control.
No actual ice.
The off piste...was the same as piste...skied flat.
A good day though, found 10chf off piste!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Not quite as bad as a year ago last Christmas but it's getting there. You don't want to do Greppon too quickly in case you hit a rock. Gentiane is seriously poor for about 70m before the schuss. Chassoure is OK once you get 15m down. Siviez is OKish until the trail back to Tortin but again you'd prefer to be on hire skis. Talking of Siviez, quite a few people in Nendaz just drive round or get the bus, few people ski over. They are doing a lot of snow farming but that only ever goes so far. Queues are pretty bad at the moment too. Thank God Swiss half term didn't coincide. Today they only had one lift running from Medran and a fine queue until some bloke went off on one at the top of his voice. Only word I recognised was 'poubelle' but not long after the other lift got started up. Good job that man. Mont Fort is fine, in fact quite benign. Verbier has the best of the snow apart from MF and Prince Harry too, apparently. Savoleyres looked awful but didn't go over there. According to snow forecast 15cm or so tomorrow. It needs it, though whether it can bond to what's underneath . . . I could do without it tbh but a dump always seems to coincide with me leaving and having to put snow chains on when it's -10C at 7 in the morning. They should pay me to come over and leave every week.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
I skied yesterday and found slopes in good conditions. Pistes were very good, maybe with an occasional patch of ice but nothing life-threatening - seen it worse. Mont fort down to Tortin was also in a very good state, some rocks but no problem to avoid them. And flat light kept crowds down - I don't get up to Mont-Fort usually during half-terms and went there 3 times yesterday without having to queue up once. Started snowing in the afternoon and it is still snowing now so will have to see what they open. Savoleyres or Bruson can be a good bet for today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
Amazing day! Did the back side of Mt Fort this morning for the first time this season and it was awesome. Didn't even notice the top traverse. Probably the best day of the season!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
@never summer, agreed, Saturday was a top day. Bit busy, but great snow and above the clouds it was stunning. Some wonderful snow on north facing flanks of Mt Gele, a tip top chassoure and a lovely afternoon rounded off by a trip to cathedral.
Today was a bit more murky. The warmth and humidity made for sticky snow and heavy going lower down where the visibility was better. Fontenays was probably the highlight today. Other than a great lunch at Carrefour 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
We stayed at around chassoure all day, visibility not the best but some lovely wind blown snow. Heavy rain today in the village, wonder where the snow line is...
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
What is going on with the weather today? Rain at village level, the road like an ice rink and such high winds that most lifts are now closed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Conditions were quite extreme with winds and very low visibility - sometimes down to 10 meters. snow higher up - where we couldn't see - was quite nice, much heavier and more sticky lower down where we could see much better. Maybe saw 30 people on slopes in total, though a few more were in various restaurants on the mountain hiding from the weather. It was a day to ski from one pit stop to another.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
T-shirts weather today. Wanted a big day but couldn't' last even 2 hours - my feet felt like they were in an oven. Still beautiful day with hours spent on sunny terraces. Good snow on Mont-Gele and cooler, but takes forever to get back up once down. Touring tomorrow, a welcome break from alpine boots.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Spent Sunday in Verbier in glorious weather. The on piste snow conditions were great and Tortin's bumps were nice and forgiving.
As I'd never skied in Nendaz I thought I'd head over there and give it a go, which was a big mistake. It had the feeling of season-end, with lots of bare earth & water skiing in some places, and even some tarmac peaking through the track back down Prarion (??) towards Plan du Fou. A complete contrast to the excellent conditions in Verbier (admittedly I didn't ski back down to Medran).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@1556garyt, I understand what you mean about the Prarion area now. Even after a decent dump of snow last week, it was bare in patches and icy elsewhere. Les Fontaines was also a really tricky ski with piles of fresh snow concealing plate-like ice; was quite pleased to get to the bottom unscathed (the intinerary above was in much better shape!). In contrast, the blacks up above Siviez at Greppon Blanc were smashing - fast and uncrowded!
Overall, liked Nendaz as a resort (not the most convenient skiing), Neige Aventure was an excellent choice for lessons for my mrs and the Hotel 4 Vallees Nendaz was truly magnificent!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Super day yesterday. Air temperature stayed low, so despite the sun pistes were in great condition above 2,000m. Coverage is excellent. Chassoure has some marvellous snow and the bumps are by no means monstrous.
Trekked all the way across to Thyon and didn't see a bare patch. Surprisingly quiet for a sunny Saturday too.
A little more overcast this morning.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
A few flakes floating around in the air yesterday and some fluffy stuff had been wind transported. Weather was better than forecast. Lower slopes authentically spring like in the afternoons, but higher up everything's great.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bit of eclipse spotting at Mont Fort followed by a very pleasing descent backside. Snow's still very good there, a few bare patches on the pole out. Fontenays in the afternoon was stunning, lovely buttery bumps.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
