 Poster: A snowHead
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I'd have thought it would make a huge difference.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@darrenm, From experience of staying in the Novotel Beaune at half term I would plan to be on the motorway by 7am!
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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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| darrenm wrote: |
Sounds like a plan. Breakfast served from 6:30 so hopefully on the road 7/7:30. Whatever happens it will all be worth it when we arrive  |
If you're thinking breakfast I suspect you've already lost. Bear in mind early flight transfers etc.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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For info, it's no longer snowing from Albertville to Moutiers.
Saint Martin Mairie have just issued an alert tho saying snow tyres or chains will be obligatory all weekend. Heavy snowfall down to 800m due tomorrow. They also recommend filling up with petrol near Chambery or Albertville. Other advice includes packing additional water and food and a torch.
Perhaps most significantly their emergency accommodation is prepped and ready for use! Teams from Sevabel, Setam, the Mairie and the Municpal police are ready to help with putting on snow chains all along the Belleville valley roads tomorrow. The snowplough teams have been out all day. They will stop at midnight tonight before resuming at 3.00am.
Social media for Les Menuires, VT and SMB (especially Twitter and FB) will be updated regularly.
They would also like to remind all drivers that it is forbidden to overtake snowploughs.
It's going to be a busy weekend!
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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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@steph, Similar alerts being put out by La Plagne and the Prefecture73 as well.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@steph, the Haute-Alpes prefecture have already been using their refuges this evening. It's going to be a long long day for a lot of skiers tomorrow.
@Dave of the Marmottes, if you have children with you, you have to feed them when they get up. It could be the worst decision you make if you don't.
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| Quote: |
If you're thinking breakfast I suspect you've already lost.
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Get some croissants, chocolate bars, water, whatever, and get on the road early.
This weather has been forecast for days now. Why wouldn't people be travelling with plenty of provisions? 
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| Quote: |
This weather has been forecast for days now. Why wouldn't people be travelling with plenty of provisions? |
Exactly.
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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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@pam w, my kids would probably have eaten them all by now, no matter what I'd put in there. To get the croissants there has to be somewhere open to buy them.
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with 3 kids under 12 I think the best compromise is breakfast at 6:30 and then in the road asap. If it takes all day, so be it. A few years ago it took us 12 hours from Beaune. Still better than being sat at home in the rain
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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There'll be somewhere open en route if nothing is available in the hotel or the vicinity this evening. I do think it's worth getting going very early, on a day like tomorrow is likely to be. I wouldn't wait for breakfast in a hotel. There will have been supermarkets open till 8 pm or so this evening.
I think the secret of "iron ration" provisions is to make them unattractive and stick them out of reach. I had some bars of really cheap and nasty Tesco chocolate in the box with my chains, snow shovel and stuff last winter. It never got bad enough for me to eat them, and nobody else knew they were there.
I suppose that years of travelling with an insulin dependent diabetic, often far from a shop, meant I was never - absolutely never - without some form of carbohydrate sustenance, if only some sort of very worthy but dull squirrel poo-poo biscuit which the kids would only eat if genuinely hungry. 
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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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@darrenm, I agree.
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Best of luck, @darrenm, 
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You know it makes sense.
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| darrenm wrote: |
| with 3 kids under 12 I think the best compromise is breakfast at 6:30 and then in the road asap. If it takes all day, so be it. A few years ago it took us 12 hours from Beaune. Still better than being sat at home in the rain |
Sorry misread thought you were exiting resort. Agree it probably doesn't make much odds from Beaune.
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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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Just got on the ferry in Dover to the captain announcing that there are 800 teenagers on board and asking for responsible behaviour. He sounded a bit wired if I'm honest...
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Poster: A snowHead
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We drove down and got to Samoens about 330 this morning. Chucked it down with rain most of the way. Not nice but seems like plenty of snow so looking forward to skiing tomorrow instead of messing around with a crappy transfer day.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Road seems fine for Alpe d'Huez. No new snow overnight.
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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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Traffic around Moutiers is busy but running smoothly. Rained lower down which is very good news! Weather is clear at the moment down in the valley.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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@rainman, 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Spoke too soon started snowing lightly. Not enough to cause problems but enough to put me off skiing 
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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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@pam w, yes, it's frightening how quickly you get picky about whether you'll go skiing today or not. I used to ski in anything but driving rain, but am much more easily put off now that I have more skiing days!
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Corks ! (bouchons) on the Lyon to Chambery motorway after le Tour de Pin to Chambery then all the way from Chambery to Albertville then on the ramp up to the tunnel de l'Aigueblance into Moutiers
Jams or slow traffic on the descent from the Haute-Tarentaise resorts then on the run in to Moutiers. Afterwards jams at Chambery on both sides by the toll booths.
Jams around Grenoble and leading up to Vizille.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| rainman wrote: |
Is it weird that, as someone skiing at Easter, I still enjoy living vicariously through this thread?  |
I haven't skied in the last four years (young family and moving house dictated priorities) but have avidly read threads like this and the weather outlook almost daily throughout the winter season - it really helps you feel like you're sharing in the pleasure and pain of fellow snowheads! I always announce to my often uninterested colleagues/friends/family whenever there's a good dump of snow in the Alps!
This year is different though as heading to Tignes for 3 days and 3V for 5 days in March, so reading twice as much as usual!!
Drive safely folks and have an amazing week!!
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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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@pam w, certainly have, pity really as Saturday is the only quiet day atm.
@davidof, has justified my decision not to travel much as it pains me
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| Claude B wrote: |
@pam w, certainly have, pity really as Saturday is the only quiet day atm.
@davidof, has justified my decision not to travel much as it pains me |
It is snowing heavily around Grenoble from 800 m so I think things will be tricky getting into resort later.
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You know it makes sense.
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We drove from Mont Dore to Bern yesterday, left about 3pm and arrived a bit after 10pm. It was warm and nice until Thiers, at which point it became wet windy and full of traffic. The approach to Geneva was 'OK', but going around the lake was pretty horrible. Google suggested we take route '1' to avoid congestion on the motorway - but I'm not sure how much congestion there actually was. It was raining fairly heavily and about 1 degree according to the car.
I'm not a snow removal expert, but it looked like the snow had compacted where people had driven over it before it was cleared, and perhaps the rain / clearing had helped to remove the non-compacted stuff. This meant there was a narrow strip of compacted ice / snow along much of the road, where our winter tyres struggled for grip, sort of forcing you to drive avoiding it with threat of sudden loss of control.
Google put us back on the motorway from Lausanne up to Bern and it wasn't too bad. Rain / snow, but traffic moving quickly. Today we drive to Zillertal, fingers crossed it's a smooth journey.
Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Sat 13-02-16 10:31; edited 1 time in total
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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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@davidof, I was worried both ways tbh and I'm sure it would be pretty painful for her from Geneva although she has to travel as far as Annecy anyway.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
Corks ! (bouchons)
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When Les Saisies put an English version of how to buy passes online it was literally unintelligible. I had to switch to the French. I emailed them and offered to improve it, saying I wasn't much of a French speaker but did speak excellent English. Wouldn't have wanted a "bung" - would have been quite fun to meet those involved. I never got a reply.
I did do some amateur translating of a menu for a restaurant over the road, having pointed out that "magret de canard" wasn't a kind of ham and that they could safely leave "creme brulée" untranslated rather than offer burnt cream. I was offered an extra digestif, which I accepted with pleasure.
The quality of English has improved but still isn't great. The ski school now invites customers to "share our mountain love" whereas "share our love of the mountains" would raise fewer eyebrows. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@driz: wow, that's a big winter drive
@claude: not snowmaggedon yet, but give it time.
We've just checked the local resorts but weather too bad to ski - tree lined resorts too low for sufficient snow still and higher up zero viz - I could stand in a steamy shower with my ski gear on and get as much pleasure as those conditions.
Although if I'd bought a season pass this year I'd probably go up
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@davidof, haha.
What irritates me daily are the English language ads on WRS (which the OH insists on having on all day) where the ad team have just translated literally. Why they do this is beyond me. But the new Subaru ad gives you "driving without limits". Which I am sure is not what they really meant to imply, espesh given the Swiss speeding fine system.
It's all not quite dreadful, just annoyingly "off".
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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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Sleet in Durham
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I went to a restaurant in Lyon a couple of years ago and had to ask for the French menu as I couldn't understand the English one at all 
It's not desperately bad here at resort level but webcams don't look very inviting and a lot of lifts and runs closed. Avi level 4. Stay in the warm.
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I'm sure I'm not alone and I DO feel sorry for all those people stuck in the traffic jams but I have to confess to a frisson of pleasure/excitement when I see how long the queues are. Does that make me a terrible person?
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A couple of Saturdays ago when it wasn't as busy but busy enough and it was warmer I drove to Les Carroz and back. Left here at 7 and saw little traffic, not much on the way back either. However as I drove back the queues heading north around Chambery were dreadful. Relief was my feeling tbh 
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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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We once headed up the road to La Rosiere in a coach. It was that first, cheap, week in January. The queues coming down (end of new year week) were horrendous. Miles and miles of completely stationary traffic, people out chatting and wandering around in the warm sunshine (not a flake of snow to be seen).
As we bowled up past them all we felt very smug, I'm sorry to say, at the thought of how quiet it was going to be up there, and how little we'd paid.
I shall never understand why people with only one week's ski holiday a year (as we had) go at new year.
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I got stuck in a half term Snowmageddon in 2007. It took 7 hours to do the 21km from St Sorlin D'Arves to St Jean de Maurienne. It was utter misery. Once down we still had 550km to drive to our overnight stop at Troyes and traffic was still very heavy in places
Google maps is showing an hour delay between here and Chambery atm.
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FAQ
