 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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......probably still in those bl00dy clouds!! 
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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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There's a thread in resorts (Puy St Vincent, southern Alps) which suggests conditions are better there, and mention of a studio available in the resort.... certainly no snow forecast in the northern Alps until later in the week... if we're lucky.
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Dave, if you want to see where there's snow in France have a look at www.skifrance.fr. Click the union flag, go to snow reports and 'National Snow Report'. You'll see every French resort listed, with current conditions.
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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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The telegraph has a an article and it says that Europe is desperate for snow this Xmas.
Austria is looking the best at the moment but needs more.
The resorts it mentions are;
Obertauern with 40/60cms and 24 out of 29 lifts open. This resort as far as I can remember starts at 1700m.
Hintertux has 15 out 21 lifts open.
Obergurgl has 14 out 23. This is about 1800 upto 2700m plus so this would be a good start for me.
Solden has a glacier which is open...!!!
The rest such as St Anton, Sallbach Ischgl are described as reasonable. The low Tyrolean resorts such as Soll, Kitz etc are 'poor'.
France has the best at Alpe d Huez and L2Alpe closely followed by Val. VT is reasonable but the rest of 3V is not good.
Italy is said to have a good start with Paso Tonale. Val Senales, Courmayuer and Cervinia rated as 'good'.
I would give it a few more days and watch what weather comes in. The probelms seems to be that the Alpes are under a high pressure zone and it needs the get low for changable weather.
The Italian resorts in Aosta are served by a southern wind...forget what it is called so it has its own little system, apparently which might be why the conditions are different/better than everywhere else.
Val is high so it will be one to keep an eye on. I would also look at Alpe DH and L2Alpes
as they are also high. Look up Sarah on this page...There are another plug for this girll!! she knows about Accom in the resort of AlpeD.
And last but not least, Zermatt as it is really high and the link over to Cervinia is open, which is also good, they say.
The Valais region is not generally good and Verbier is almost shut.
There doesn't appear to be any resort that is great at the moment just degrees of good downwards
Keep an eye on these pages as a lot of posters live in the alpes and that is the best referral, I think.
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Looking at the forecast for the 16th here (scroll down to last map, as of time of posting) it looks as though the high pressure may be collapsing. Here's hoping.
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Here's how the French are wearing their depression about anticyclones on the skipass.com forum:
Revolt against the anticyclones
And the language from 'Da Goggle' gets quite colourful:
| Quote: |
| Croisez les doigts, espérez, faites des incantations chaque soir...priez...flagellez-vous...créez des basses pressions...egorgez deux ou trois poulets...sacrifiez un pain de fart sur l'autel de l'hiver...mais faut que ça change cette météo toute pourrie, faut que les depressions s'enchainent...fait qu'il neige...des tonnes et des tonnes de neige..;sinon, on va tous sombrer dans le desepoir le plus profond. |
Translated, courtesy of 'FreeTranslation.com' (not quite up to PG's standard, in my experience):
| Quote: |
| Cross the fingers, hope, done incantations every evening. ..priez...flagellez-vous...créez low pressures. ..egorgez two or three chickens. ..sacrifiez a bread of fart on the altar of l'hiver...mais is necessary them to change this forecast all rotten, is necessary that the depressions s'enchainent...fait that it snows. ..des thunder and snow tons. .;sinon, one all will sink in the desepoir more deep... |
Well, that wasn't wholly successful, was it? Let's try Translation.paralink.com:
| Quote: |
| Cross fingers, hope, make conjurations every evening ask you flagellate create low pressures egorgez two or three chickens sacrifice a bread of ski-wax on the altar of the winter but need that this changes this very rotted weather forecast, needs that depressions enchainent makes that it is snowing tonnes and of tonnes of snow; otherwise, they all are going to sink into the deepest desepoir... |
PG - over to you!
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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 used to go ski=ing in Austria at the beginning of January (Westendorf, which is on the Skiwelt area) and the arrival of a decent snow coverage was always a close run thing (okay, so we only went 3 years). We went to Saas Fee over the New Year week this year and although we had good conditions I got the impression we were pretty lucky. My personal impression is that Christmas / New Year ski=ing is just not a reliable prospect...am I wrong here? was it different in the past?
I'd forgotten 'fart' was french for 'ski-wax'... it's a pity that bad translation is so much more fun than good, n'est pas PG
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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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I don't know about anywhere else - but at least its cold here (ADH) so if anything does fall (due at the end of the week, but still not convinced it'll be anything really 'meaty') it will fall as the white stuff rather than the wet stuff. Hey we've got to stay optimistic, often when its slow to start means that we'll be inundated throughout the rest of the season. 
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"when in my heart it's Spring"
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You know it makes sense.
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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 back from Verbier - very little snow there with only 4 lifts open offering man made snow only on a real thin hard pack base.
Apparently it's the worse start to the season in 20 years.
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Poster: A snowHead
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David Goldsmith,
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| sacrifiez a bread of fart |
I prefer the automatic translation, totally boring if done properly....
As Ian says, un pain de fart is a slab of wax - as Hannah found out to her cost when skiing with the DHO kids a few years' back. She was only 7 and couldn't understand why the Brits all dissolved into fits of giggles every time she asked them to pass the fart.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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For this weekend is expected a depression coming from the NW, let's pray for it. 
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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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Hi Michelle, where are you staying? I can't make up my mind between the Chalet Cherrier and Chalet Hotel Le Fjord (both Skiworld) - don't suppose you know either of these and can give a recommendation? 
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We're at Chalet Hotel Champs Avalins, with Ski Total, Dave. I'd love to give some advice on the chalets you've mentioned, but it's our first time in Val D ourselves!
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Canada.
(The Lord will be found in his Lodge in Banffffff)
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Here is a more reliable answer:
https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/PUBLIC/
Go to the Europe map and click on "NGP" (which is the mogaps model)
Then select :
Previous 12-hr Precipitation Rate [mm/12hr] and Sea Level Pressure [hPa] Loop
This will show you the NOGAPS model its not perfect but as a rough guide the areas above the blue 540 line with precipitation are likely to get snow in the elevated regions. The precipitation I green for a small amount yellow and orange for reasonable falls and red for an absolute dump.
At the moment the sunday map shows some good falls if you look at the Atlantic map you get an idea of what is coming.
Id add a picture but am having trouble putting it on the site (any suggestions?)
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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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To translate the maps you can see:
It shows that in 4 days time (friday/sat your time) there will be moderate falls in France about 20cm with lighter falls in Italy 10 cm.
Further out is difficult to say but I cant see much precipitation before the 26th.
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I have e-mailed my firend in La Plagne and will post his reply about the conditions. A couple of days ago he was quite optimistic!
If you must book this early then Val will not be the worst choice, I think..
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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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2 metres???????
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| Ray Zorro wrote: |
| Top of the drops appears to be Megeve which is supposedly going to get nearly 2.0m! |
Can't wait 'til Jan 3rd!
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You know it makes sense.
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Got to admit I favour Chamonix meteo for PDS, Cham and the French side of the Northern Alps. And they have sat their fesses well and truly on the fence.
http://www.meteo-chamonix.org/
Looks like lots of precip over the weekend but the critical snowline anywhere between 1000 and 1700 metres. (just shows the value of weather models sometimes...)
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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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Cough, the Kiwis have cracked it - skiing on Xmas Day which is virtually their mid-summer at Whakapapa on Mt. Ruahepu. Pretty short season mind you. 13 Dec - 4 Jan. And only 1 T bar running. Better than nothing
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Poster: A snowHead
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| David Murdoch wrote: |
Looks like lots of precip over the weekend but the critical snowline anywhere between 1000 and 1700 metres. (just shows the value of weather models sometimes...) |
If you look at the predictions a lot of the weather will come from a low that is heading up from Algeria over the med with a high sitting on the Azores pushing away cold weather from the North. This means a high snow/rain limit at you say, the figure I've seen is up to 2,200 meters during the 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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I think that low moves off and another one forms in its wake (it's difficult though as the two sets of FAX charts I've seen don't tally). Most of the precipitation seems to come from the fronts that are associated with the rain coming through here. There's the initial cold front which may or may not weaken and is bringing some rain to the UK over the next day or two, and there's front associated with the low that will probably bring much rain (and possibly some sleet or snow) to England on Saturday. It's a very difficult situation to forecast at the moment and how much snow there is will depend on how the two air masses work out - there's one coming down from the north and a warmer one coming round the top of the Azores high. The current forecasts are putting this convergence further north than before which makes the air mass over the Alps warmer than was previously forecast (this is all affected by the position of the low over southern England which is the greatest uncertainty). However the latest FAX charts show the low moving away south and strong northerly air flow moving in on Sunday and a small occluded front moves over the area.
That's my reading, and it's probably wrong. The FAX charts will probably change between now and then anyway - they changed quite considerably since yesterday already.
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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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Sounds good! Just in time for me to arrive on Wednesday...
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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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Personally I hope it doesn't snow as I have to go to Lyon next week to collect my motorbike. It is forecast to snow in Grenoble on Wednesday which will be a real bummer  . Still this is Météo Chance we are talking.
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Definitely not. Can you put snow chains on a motorbike? I think I'd take a trailer.
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PG,
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After all these sacrifices to the snow gods
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Can you prove the existence of these "snow gods".
Whoops, wrong thread ... 
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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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Snow proves the existence of snow gods. Same argument as the Theists.
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FAQ
Or where in the Alps has the best skiing at the moment (I know the Pyrenees look a good bet, but I can't find any late availability over there!).
Meteo France reckons Les Arcs is going to have snow on Friday..... Saturday....... and Sunday. Looks like the women's downhill at the weekend in Val might be in trouble, but hey, who cares??? We need snow, and
