 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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| Quote: |
we got 30cm of fresh, effectively a week's worth of useable snow
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Not sure I understand the 2nd half of that sentence...
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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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Well, @abc, with very little base, the refrigeration effect wasn't strong so 30cm of powder on day1 was a bit heavier on day2 and deteriorated daily until, by day6, it was rather hard work and turning into more of a chore to ski than a pleasure.
So, in effect, 30cm gave us just enough snow for the week.
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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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Wow! What luck!
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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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Got back from Banff 20th April after two great weeks skiing. First time since February 2020 and first time in April skiing Canada. I'd go back in April for sure.
They are still getting snow and - temperatures up the hill and makes me want to just head off again. Booked for next February so less than 12 months away.
Life is too short to enjoy what we like best.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Not too shabby for May 7th. About 25cm of fresh and -5C on the mountain and dumping.
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Not too shabby for May 7th. About 25cm of fresh and -5C on the mountain and dumping.
Where's that?
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| RoamingBull wrote: |
Not too shabby for May 7th. About 25cm of fresh and -5C on the mountain and dumping.
Where's that? |
Mt Bachelor, Oregon. It's snowing at my house this morning at 4k feet, and the PNW received another 5"-8" of snow overnight, with temps in the -7 to -5 Celsius. Crazy weather pattern the past few weeks with over 2 meters of snow during April.
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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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So just completed what should have been our 3rd post retirement season, but due to injury and Covid was our 1st.
We managed 11 weeks in total, which was more than we originally envisaged, but included a little down time with a bout of French Covid. We decided to stay out over the April school holiday and ski with friends and their kids rather than going home for 2 weeks with the expense and hassle that would have involved and instead sucked up the busy pistes and lifts.
Main plus point was the survival of my shattered; repaired; and replaced hip. Desperately grateful to Mr Kelly and his team back at QEUH Glasgow who put it all back together. Leg worked really well despite subjecting it to a large diet of slushy moguls and associated slop.
Only regret was not being able to get to Glencoe this season.
Role on 2022/23 in the meantime back to Braehead.
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@Ski lots, where you planning next seadon?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Mother hucker, having invested in Tignes, we are kind of committed to keep on coming back. Having said that Mrs SL has a hankering to ski in the Pyrenees, where she has never skied, whereas most of my early skiing was done there. So we might take a rather significant detour on the way from Tignes next January.
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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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We had a season with a difference.
We bought season passes for the 3 Valleys in November and skied opening week in Val Thorens. We went back for a week in December and were then (the day after we travelled home) banned by Macron from returning to France.
We had a Geneva flight booked for 2nd Jan but went to Zermatt for 5 days, instead of the 3 Valleys as planned.
Then, in mid Jan we were at last allowed back into France - so went back to Val Thorens for 2 weeks.
In mid Feb we went to Slovakia for the first time and skied for 6 days there.
We then had a 3 week trip to Val Thorens at the end of March and finished our season with 11 days back there at the end of April.
Overall we had a great season after 2 years off - with 72 days skiing. 61 days were skied in France, 6 in Slovakia and 5 in Switzerland.
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After retiring in 2021, it was Tirol Snowcards for Mrs MA and me for winter 2021-22 - our first ever season tickets 
We managed 48 days on snow in Austria, including six days of ski touring.
Plus 14 days of ski touring or lift-served skiing in the North Pennines and Scotland. And one day skiing on snow at a local disused quarry.
Total 63 days.
We haven’t ruled out further ski touring in Scotland - but there's a lot less snow left than last year, when we toured up to June 1st.
A bit sad to finish an epic season yesterday at Stubai Glacier -  but fantastic weather for our last day after three previous days of fog and poor visibility.
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You know it makes sense.
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Not bad, managed to ski 19 days.
26/11/2021: 3 days at Cervinia/Zermatt, good snow condition, around -20c but many foggy days.
17/12/2021: 3 days at Solden, good snow but a bit slushy at the end of the day, quite hot around 5c.
23/01/2022: 6 days at Chamonix(off piste) beautiful weather but way too hot for off piste, last snowfall was 5 weeks before.
19/02/2022: 1 day at Winterberg, horrible snow conditions, hot and rainy.
13/03/2022: 6 days Saalbach-Hinterglemm, good conditions in the morning but lots of slush around 13h already, too hot but managed to ski some Sahara desert sand on the snow 
Next one: Cervinia in July! 
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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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77 Days skied after attending every Snowhead Bash, thanks to a great offer from @admin.
3763 Kilometers distance and 415926 meters vertical recorded via Garmin app and watch.
Lots of instruction from the snowheads tame experts and a complete change in style, reducing the effort required massivly.
I am really pleased with every aspect, the problem now is what to do next season? 
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Seahoob wrote: |
I am really pleased with every aspect, the problem now is what to do next season? |
Drive the golden ticket extra minibus around Europe?
Provide personal coaching on how to sell the idea to personal stakeholders (like partners, bosses, family etc)?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
| Provide personal coaching on how to sell the idea to personal stakeholders (like partners, bosses, family etc)? |
Dave I really don't know how I managed to swing it with the above, If I could provide coaching, I'm sure i'd have more than enough income for another season!
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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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Big thanks to Snowheads, @admin and three excellent bashes - lovely season, with less than normal skiing, partly down to poor snow. Two weeks before Christmas in Tignes particularly good with deep untracked powder - but the week in 'its not snowed in 3 months' Gressoney was lovely too, great hike to excellent skiing Thanks to all, and credit to sm for the picture here. Will be booking bashes next year - hope to see some of you then.
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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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| pisteoff wrote: |
credit to sm for the picture here
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sm 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Still a decent amount of snow and two more weeks left in the season at a few PNW resorts. Snow was mushy and quite grabby by 10:30am.
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@Toadman, I'm beginning to think it will never be a wrap for your season.  Which is great as more snowy photos!
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Managed 3 weeks for the first time in a long while - including my first two bashes: PSB and an excellent week in Gressoney despite lack of recent snowfall. Aiming to apply the n+1 rule to skiing weeks next year - will hopefully see folk on a bash or two...
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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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| admin wrote: |
| pisteoff wrote: |
credit to sm for the picture here
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sm |
C'est moi. It's like not saying 'walk' when you're gonna take the dog for a walk for fear of it going mental. In this case, you'll just break into that song...
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....and yep, I just have, in my head... so far...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The sun set on my season Tuesday at Mt Bachelor (and near Snowbasin UT in the photo) 27 days, 7 resorts, 7 states, roughly 8,000 miles, all with a meniscus tear that gets scoped on Monday. A very good season...quality rather than quantity in this winter that barely arrived until April.
Highlights were revisiting the underappreciated gems known as Grand Targhee and Snowbasin; low points were the cost and underwhelming terrain of Big Sky and the injuries to mates that kept them on the sidelines.
I think the Covid situation has settled down to the point where I can look forward to returning to the Alps next season. Was leaning toward Kitz and the Dolomites anyway, and with them on Ikon it seems a no brainer. Also headed back to Targhee where they will open a big new chair with more excellent terrain.
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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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Beautiful dark blue skies this morning and corduroy for breakfast.
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Great stuff Toadman 
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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Oh yes
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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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@Toadman, where's the jealous emoji? 
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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French Northern Alps
Although we had good conditions there was a lot less depth compared to average, maybe 50% less snowfall. We were lucky that the winter months: Jan/Feb/Mar were cold which preserved the snow that fell so skiing was good even if off piste there were a lot of "spring skiing" days even in mid-winter.
After a final blast of winter at the end of April I'd hoped to get out again but an insane heatwave, 30C+, meant that the snow melted fast and conditions were not great. Of all the accounts I heard in May nothing tempted me to get my skis out of storage. In previous seasons I would have skied to June.
The col d'Arpire is typical. Situated in the snowy Beaufortain massive it would normally be skiable to the second week of June with zero portage. Here is it on the 27th May already with 20 minutes portage when we cycled past.
but in a way this was a blessing. Rather than drag the skiing out beyond what is reasonable I was able to pivot over to summer sports early and get a bit of fitness. As I told my neighbour, who'd been saving himself up for spring touring, ski in the winter!
So about 80 days skiing due to the shorter season. Started at the beginning of November with the first snows but these melted and the season proper only got underway at the end of November. This gave me enough time to get a level 2 sprain on my left ankle and ruin my first two months of ski touring / off piste.
We skied some new places, Lans en Vercors above Grenoble
A micro resort with some steep pistes. We only skied here because we had some stuff to collect locally. Otherwise it is a bit too small and too far from home to bother with.
There was crazy tropical rain at the end of December - this did help to stabilize the snowpack throughout the season. Record low avalanche deaths as the base was pretty much frozen solid.
I spent a couple of weeks in Chamonix in Jan doing my L2 Nordic with BASI. As Jas Bruce noted (L4 ISTD Alpine) why does nordic have to have so many techniques ? And finally ski toured for the first time on the 23rd.
Also time for night racing
and the Foulee Blanche in the Vercors
 - no I haven't invested in a drone like weathercam to follow me around.
February we managed a couple of 100km+ days at la Plagne and les Sybelles
 les Sybelles
as well as a mix of ski touring, local downhill and cross country.
In March I did my first 42km cross country race, la Savoyarde, difficult to get permission from the missus who thought I'd keel over dead from the effort.
I went back ski touring on the Dent de Crolles, which I'd not done for a few years. As I was climbing up a huge boulder came off the cliffs and landed a few meters away from me.
because of the long anti-cyclone it was largely spring skiing off piste and smog in the valleys
actually really bad, lung bursting smog
April another x-country ski race, l'Etoile des Saisies chez Pam and a bit of Janvril weather allowing a really late descent of the Couloir en Virgule behind the house in powder snow
powder continued at les 7 laux
and we managed another couple of really big days out at a secret spot
 and les Arcs - our last day on skis on the 21st April.
Plus a couple of days crust skiing (off track cross country skiing) at the High Plains of the Chartreuse and the Grand Rocher, the Belledonne (normally a ski tour, in fact where I'd started my ski touring this year back in Jan).
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