 Poster: A snowHead
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There looks to be an increasing disturbance in the force around new years day on the graph. Granted its too far out to bank it but it looks like there is increased confidence that something significant is going to happen around then.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Death star rebuilt?
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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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12 sleeps to go...
lower temps need to appear so those cannons can get on, some of the pistes on the cams don't look as good as they should do and need some fresh snow on top.
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Cold enough at night now I'd think for the canons. Snow stayed pretty firm all day with little melt, and some areas which were brown yesterday were white again today. Piles of harvested snow we saw beside a thinning piste yesterday were spread out to good effect.
Our boys were delighted to have a go on mini skidoos available at no cost from lunch time above top of Biolay chair 
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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 update they do manage the pistes well in the 3vs
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| monkey wrote: |
| There looks to be an increasing disturbance in the force around new years day on the graph. Granted its too far out to bank it but it looks like there is increased confidence that something significant is going to happen around then. |
There has been an awakening...
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It's becoming tricky! I've seen more peeps being taken off the pistes in the past few days than in the past few years !
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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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| steph wrote: |
| It's becoming tricky! I've seen more peeps being taken off the pistes in the past few days than in the past few years ! |
Injured?
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Beautiful day in VT today. Sunny and about -4, lifts and pistes surprisingly not busy. Most snow canons working hard as they have for 2 days now.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Locals and seasonaires are being 'asked' not to ski by Marie's office. Wonder if our resident season tickets will be switched off?
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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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Given that it's probably the least amount of snow I've seen in 9 years of coming to 3V, pistes were in surprisingly good condition in VT today and really not that busy - impressive as only one proper dump of snow this season. Shows that they have invested heavily over the years in lifts and snow cannons. Reinforces why 3v is as popular as it is.
The important thing however is that I can ski for a couple of hours tomorrow (actually that bit is optional) and then be able to get to a restaurant for a big slap up meal and nice bottle of something ( which is a non negotiable tradition) ...
@emwmarine, are you out here permanently as not been able to agree locally that I qualify for resident's privilege. Would be good to know more ...
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| alti - dude wrote: |
Given that it's probably the least amount of snow I've seen in 9 years of coming to 3V, pistes were in surprisingly good condition in VT today and really not that busy - impressive as only one proper dump of snow this season. Shows that they have invested heavily over the years in lifts and snow cannons. Reinforces why 3v is as popular as it is.
The important thing however is that I can ski for a couple of hours tomorrow (actually that bit is optional) and then be able to get to a restaurant for a big slap up meal and nice bottle of something ( which is a non negotiable tradition) ...
@emwmarine, are you out here permanently as not been able to agree locally that I qualify for resident's privilege. Would be good to know more ... |
Not here permanently but pretty often. If you turn up at Setam with proof of co-prop status they give you a fairly big discount on season ticket. Or used to. It was a few years ago when I used to have one and I think i showed a letter from the management company and my proof of Taxe d'Habitation.
I now use the 3v Liberte pass as it's more flexible but imagine that as you have to pay a subscription for that only seasonnaires or owners would use it.
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You know it makes sense.
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@emwmarine, thanks for that. I've converted to the similar system from 'our side' after a few years of season passes. I think the ski passes prices are designed by actuaries as they are perfect in making the decision difficult ie it doesn't really matter what system I use as its about the same prices !!
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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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@letsgetpiste, yes! Thé secouristes are being kept busy. The pistes are very hard packed.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@alti - dude, to qualify for a Belleville valley residents pass you need to be on the electoral roll in the commune and be able to show 3 years of taxe d'impot revenue,I don't believe they accept taxe d'habitation any more. There are a variety of resident passes such as kids -16, students -25 etc. all need slightly different paperwork (students need a school/uni certificate and to have one parent with their permanent address in the commune etc.) the above criteria is required for a 3V or Belleville valley only season pass.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Home today after a week in La Tania, things holding up well considering...but they need snow soon. Plenty of stones and grassy patches appearing on most pistes, especially anything south facing. Must be cold enough to run snow machines at night (there was even one going at top of Sauliere yesterday morning). They are also clearing stones and putting in lots of effort to cover the bare patches where possible. Yesterday they were even using a helicopter to bring snow from off piste areas to some of the busy pistes in need.
Also a lot of icy patches to look out for, although it was better yesterday than earlier in the week. It's a real case of picking the runs at the right time, hit some runs too early or too late then it's either hard going (if you're inept like me) or full of inept people like me struggling their way down. You also need to plan your routes a bit better if your crossing the whole area. On more than one occasion I found that en route from La Tania to VT (or vice versa) that a piste I intended to take was closed so I had to change route, take another lift up and have a rethink.
Sun was still shining as I left this morning, hope for the sake of those there this week that they get a bit of snowfall.
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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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Weather forecast is now showing snow from w/c 1 Jan...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Quote: |
Yesterday they were even using a helicopter to bring snow from off piste areas to some of the busy pistes in need.
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Discuss...................
Are we simply making things worse in the long term with ideas like this, should we accept that there is little or no snow cover right now and wait until the it comes naturally or should we use a helicopter to move it around the mountain???!!!!
I love to ski and I am certainly not an environmentalist, but this seems a somewhat ludicrous thing too do!
This is much easier to say sat here in the UK not sat in a Chalet in France itching to go skiing. In 3 weeks time I may feel differently.........!
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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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They do it just for the holiday period as it's their busiest weeks so resorts are trying to provide visitors with some snow to ski on because they want people to return next year. Once it's over they will stop and wait for the natural snow.
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| never summer wrote: |
| They do it just for the holiday period as it's their busiest weeks so resorts are trying to provide visitors with some snow to ski on because they want people to return next year. Once it's over they will stop and wait for the natural snow. |
+1
It's just business... if there's unusable snow somewhere and a helicopter drop is financially viable, then why not!!
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Sometimes when I 've been skiing on patchy stuff eg any of the pistes back into Meribel late afternoon, and there are piles of it right beside the piste I do wonder why someone doesn't just shovel it onto the piste...
Helicopters does seem a bit extreme.
Any talk of this year of only allowing VT passes on the VT lifts? I remember some controversy last year...
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@CourchGal lol, this for real?
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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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@CourchGal, I was in VT today. No restrictions on pass use that I know of
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| CourchGal wrote: |
Sometimes when I 've been skiing on patchy stuff eg any of the pistes back into Meribel late afternoon, and there are piles of it right beside the piste I do wonder why someone doesn't just shovel it onto the piste...
Helicopters does seem a bit extreme. |
They were doing that too, across the whole week. In a lot of places they were shovelling it from a good 30 feet away from the edge of the piste, using a big sheet of plastic to transfer it. I also saw plenty of pisteurs going around with buckets and clearing the larger stones from the piste, in terms of the effort that was going in to ensure as much open piste as possible it was fairly impressive.
Agree that helicopters are extreme but the piste in question is a bit of a thoroughfare from the top of Sauliere towards Meribel, so pretty important, and also flanked by cliffs, so no easy way of shovelling from the side of the piste and no canons nearby. In terms of getting a decent quantity of snow to that particular location during normal working hours it wasn't really that simple, I suspect it wasn't a straightforward decision to bring the chopper in and would no doubt be an expensive option. I heard a tale on the plane back from a chap who'd been to Italy and heard an estimate that the resort he was at had spent 2 million euros in getting enough artificial snow for people to ski on...probably a figure to take with a pinch of salt but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there has been some serious money spent by resorts to ensure Christmas skiing.
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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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On peak weeks such as this week, 3V can have 80,000 skiers. If they pay about 40 euros each to ski (I know some will not pay, pay less but some pay more) that is a daily income of 3.2 million euros. They can afford to spend a little on moving or making snow... However I was glad to leave 3V on 22 December and have Christmas at home this year. I had skied what was available and didn't want to do any more. Will be back later, hopefully after a dump of snow.
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@SnoodyMcFlude,
It has been calculated that the 507kms of piste currently available around the Sella Ronda area cost 12m Euro to produce.
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You know it makes sense.
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But the good news is that it isn't people like @drvosjecha taking the decision, it's people responsible for a P&L. I'm grateful to them as it would have been impossible to rent my apartment without the efforts they've made. Having said that the families in the apartment over the last 2 weeks will have spent many hundreds of euros in the local economy as well as the money on lift passes.
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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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@emwmarine mark my words, this wont happen for too long.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Well it's worked this season. There's snow forecast in the next week. As I said, i'm just pleased the real business World is run by sensible people and not fruit loons.
Given that VT are planning further investment in their snow cannons with the introduction of more of the fan type I will mark your words and they are only likely to come true when global warming has turned even the highest alpine peaks into places of warmth and summer hideaways.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Staying in Les Menuires at the mo. We skied for over six hours today and queued longer than 5 minutes just once. Even found some fresh powder! Could be a lot worse. Meribel does not look too clever. Menuires itself is ok. Can anyone give us the status in Val tho and courchevel?
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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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Lots using the Orelle link into 3v today . . . .unusually busy but guess that's the price to pay for access to VT form Maurienne valley.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Hi @FionaTwice, we skied from Menuires a couple of days ago. Route took us from Sunny Express to the Roc 2 lift and then a nice warm up down the grand lac and pelozet to get the new St Martin 2 chair. down the Faon and then Perdrix into Mottaret, no problems or stones there.
Up the Pas Du Lac gondola to Saulire and then Creux towards 1650, which was fast and busy. Roc Mugnier towards 1650 and then Ariondaz to join the Petit Bosses piste and then Gravelles to get back to the Aiguille de Fruit lift to get the Altiport into 1850. Chenus gondola and then the Arolles blue towards La Tania, followed by the Folyeres into LT, all cannon snow but well covered.
Gondola out and then the Dou de Lanches chair followed by the Boulevard de Loze towards Meribel. That was very glassy though they were about to close it to try to spread more snow on it. Into Meribel via the Blanchot green and then the blue Doron to the Chaudanne. Combes chair and then the Tougnette 2 took us to the Gros Tougne for an easy glide back to Les Menuires.
Distance covered 57km over 4 hours, and just over 6,000m of ascent and descent. Easy little blue circuit but watch out for heroes skiing too fast 
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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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3v passes purchased, 5 sleeps to go, snow gods about to deliver snow... 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| FionaTwice wrote: |
| Staying in Les Menuires at the mo. We skied for over six hours today and queued longer than 5 minutes just once. Even found some fresh powder! Could be a lot worse. Meribel does not look too clever. Menuires itself is ok. Can anyone give us the status in Val tho and courchevel? |
How did you manage to find anything 'fresh' let alone powder given the last significant fall of snow was late November 
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some sites telling me it's snowing... can anyone confirm??
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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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Lots of cloud in Courchevel at the moment. Fingers crossed the snow fairies bring some unforecasted snow. Skied in 1850 today snow making overnight and pistes in reasonable shape.
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YR is saying snow this afternoon. 2 ** snowflakes worth! Surprised not to see anything falling on the webcams. Only slightly devastated. 
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