 Poster: A snowHead
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Pistebashers..what would us snowsporties do without them? Maybe resort to what our intrepid, foolhardy forefathers used to do, that is, flatten the snow with their leather ski boots.
A month ago, on 1 of the weeks that covered my stay in Les Arcs 1800. The management of the mountains of Les Arcs 1800 decided to allow their Pisteurs to share their work experience with the general public (tourists) for a duration of 1 week. There were, of course, only a limited amount of names that could be put forward - 8 per day for seven days.
The itinerary was that on a designated evening we would meet the pisteurs at one of the bottom lift stations at 1730. We would then accompany them in their respective snowcats and spend the entire evening with them until they had groomed the whole of the les arc 1800 ski area and the whole procedure would take exactly five hours!
There were 8 of us waiting at the bottom, ony two of us were English. We could not have asked for a more perfect evening for piste bashing.. The air was windless, cloudless and getting very cold. Dusk was already beginning to reveal twinkling stars in the darkening sky and the hint of a fabulous sunset to come.
Four snowcats thundered towards us in a crooked snake-like formation, not unlike scarab beetles what with their black shell-like exterior glistening menacing in the half light. It was warm and cosy once in the spacious cabin. Its dashboard likening to the cockpit of a light aircraft. The view from the cabin was delightfully panoramic.
We all know that there are many vital jobs that a piste basher is capable of taking on. But the one that interested me most was the re-positioning of skied snow from the edge of the piste back to the middle of the piste.
Most skiers & boarders tend to use the middle of the piste, thus, pluming loose snow against the sides of the pistes.
This is done by positioning a snowcat on both banks flanking the piste and using their powerful pincers to spume the banked snow back to the middle of the piste to form a mohican-type ridge of loose snow whilst behind them a third piste basher is riding the middle of the piste and flattening the ridge with its massive rear skirt.. we were in that one. A memorable experience 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thanks for that. Someone somewhere in another thread said they would like to have a go. Didn't realise that Les Arcs had taken this initiative - I wonder if other resorts have too. 5 hours though! Hope you took your Beaufort sarnies and a bottle of rouge!
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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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I always wondered what they were doing up there - don't think I would last for 5 hours though!
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Sounds like good fun. Did you get a shot at the controls though ? 5 hours would be a long time just watching somebody else.
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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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I must admit.. 5 hrs is a wee bit too long. After 3 hrs my tummy was beginning to remind me of supper time and yeah.. I should've had the fore thought to pack a picnic hamper - but I have no regrets, the venture was enlightening and somewhat humbling. There were several hairy moments on approaching some steepish red runs when the pisteur asked us to put our seatbelts on - our snowcat afforded us a new dimension in slip-sliding.. 
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Maximus, I've always wanted a ride in a piste-basher and an idea of what it is like to do the night-run. Thanks for the post: wish I could have come too.
I wonder if any other resorts will do this (are you listening Val Thorens?!).
Maybe a concerted push from Snowheads could get the ball rolling (over to you PG).
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Aww, I want a ride too. Maybe they could offer this as another option up on the mountain, pistie beastie rides for the paying punters.
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Maximus, that sounds fabulous, what a great experience. In the hotels we stayed at in Belle Plagne & in Alpe d'Huez, the bedrooms looked out across the valley & I used to love going to bed at night with the curtains open (we weren't overlooked!), lying in bed looking at the piste-bashers' lights dancing across the hills.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Cathy, as you could guess, the snowcats have numerous powerful lights attatched to the front back and sides. The dancing lights you speak of are probably the powerful articulate lights the pisteurs use to communicate with each other across the mountain. Besides using their walkie talkies, it is often quicker and more convenient for the pisteurs to employ a sort of morse with their lights to get a message across or pinpoint a particular spot on the piste that needs urgent attention. Every now and then our driver would break away from the formation in response to a couple of flashes from a leading piste machine. He would take his machine off the piste and groom the snow outside a mountain restaurant. He would then return to join his rightful place in the formation at another point.
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Formation Biste Bashing - so that's how they make all these lovely corduroy carpets which are so nice for the first one off the lift.
Cathy - I'm a Belle Plagne afficinado and I know just what you mean about the spooky lights late at night. Lovely.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Couple of weeks back I watched the lights of a snow bison right at the top of the Aguille Rouge black (3200M+ Les Arcs) and I thought "bigger than mine man, bigger than mine!"
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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 wonder if Sam has seen this thread. He wanted a ride in a piste basher for his birthday (if I remember correctly). Did they allow kids to have a go?
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Don't see why not.... after all, they allow kids as passengers on the 'moto neige' caravans .... great fun, if not entirely ecologically friendly... 
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You know it makes sense.
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"I love the smell of diesel in the morning."
"But thats Charlies piste" "Charlie don't ski!!!"
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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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Maximus did you do any blacks? I've often wondered what sitting in a pistebasher going almost vertical would be like!
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Poster: A snowHead
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The pisteurs just concentrated around the 1800 area, I don't think there are any black runs there. But there were a couple of hairy moments when the driver suggested we fasten our seat belts on approaching the first part of a steep red run.
It was good advice as the piste machine actually slid sideways on its treads for the first hundred yards.. Then there were times when the pisteur would power his machine right to the edge of a piste where there is a sheer drop, and he would stop only when the shovel was dangling over the edge and then reverse..but I suspect he did it for the tourists 
Another thing..as the shovel smashed and flattened moguls, the snow would well-up in front of the windscreen and flow away in liquid form, it was wierd. You see the same effect when watching the filming of a mini avalanche..
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It all sounds fantastic something I have wanted to do for ages and it sounds better than the bob ride in LP. Did you have to pay for the privalage? Why dont they do this as a Red Letter Day now theres a thought....
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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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Hmm Wengen keeps looking for tourist attractions I wonder if they'd like to do something similar, sounds great I know I'd like a go 
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Sort of like snowmobiles, without the guilt trip.....
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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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Absolutely, a sort of watching the pros at work night ! I'm certain from the responses here it would go down well at any location in the alps 
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Intresting that they decided on Kline Schidegg, I guess it was the closest they could get to the UNESCO world heritage sight of the Aletsch Glacier, anyway the Germans invented it they're mearly trying to sell them to the Swiss, who will quite possibly buy them, now heres a thought for you, the usual output from a fuel cell powered vehicle is water, why not use the water to provide the supply for a snowcannon on the back of teh piste machine
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Patent it! An obvious winner. Drivers will be happy too, they'll be on permanent overtime.
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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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| Colin Vince wrote: |
| It all sounds fantastic something I have wanted to do for ages and it sounds better than the bob ride in LP. Did you have to pay for the privalage? Why dont they do this as a Red Letter Day now theres a thought.... |
It was absolutely free, I got the ski club to thank for that. I was fortunate enough to have latched on to the SCGB resort rep (Virginia Mills) whom herself was embarking on her maiden week as a ski rep. It was she that imparted the information on to her group. There were only a limited amount of names that could be put forward, and soon. I was one of 2 who showed interest. As soon as she had the names she immediately used her mobile to phone the relevant office and.. et voila![/b]
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Someone asked about grooming black runs in an earlier thread. To the best of my knowledge, some of the piste bashers have a specialized winch mounted on the back which they can use to winch themselves up and down the steeper runs. Certainly when you do the night snowmobiling in Whistler, you have to be sure that you know wherabouts they are, or you run the risk of decapitating yourself.
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