 Poster: A snowHead
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easiski, 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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That's not looking too good - due to come out tomorrow too. Hopefully the forecast is correct (snow tonight and tomorrow AM) and things will freshen up a bit.
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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.
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So the grey stuff in your pic of Puy Salie from the resto- is that the moraine? Can you ski on it? If not how do you get down to the resto? Has the stream Iscream fell into opened up again - it was on the Puy Salie wasn't it?
I sure hope you get a drop in temps and some more snow instead of rain/wind. It's been foul here much of the day too; I followed a car/caravan that was going a bit too fast over the Humber Bridge & really thought it might go over as it passed the towers. People sent photos to the local TV station of funnel clouds (tornados that don't touch ground) over south Lincs
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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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foul here tonight, and the neighbours say it is going to snow above 2000m. Yesterday it was around 30 degrees in the middle of the day. Toay it was nearer 12. Mountain weather!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Butterfly, Yes - moraine, yes you can ski on it, and yes - that's where the stream was!
pam w, Got colder and colder yesterday. There's snow almost down to village level, have taken photo from window and will upload later. Stil pouring
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| easiski wrote: |
| Butterfly, Yes - moraine, yes you can ski on it... |
Excuse the ignorance, but what is moraine like close-up? It looks like lumps of grey ice?
Good to hear the rain has turned to snow though - that should have repaired things a bit higher up.
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Sat 18-07-09 7:43; edited 1 time in total
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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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Oh nice one David!
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Butterfly, you've got it! Obviously to ski on it it's got to be pretty smooth (relatively) and moraines come in all shapes and sizes (like most things).  Not going up today - going to town with R32s who arrived last night. My pic isn't as good as David's so I won't bother to upload it.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Another view
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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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double post
Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Sun 19-07-09 14:37; edited 1 time in total
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You know it makes sense.
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I went down to Bourg d'Oisans with the R32s and then we drove through Venosc and up towards St Christophe to have a bite of lunch. I took these 2 pix from the Gite, one looking upriver (the Veneon) towards St Christophe and La Berarde and the other of the pretty waterfall that we could see.
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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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First of all, today was the day for the Mountain of Hell mountain bike race which starts at 3,400m on the glacier. It's always worth a visit just to watch them all fall off!  Today there was lots of snow and not much ice, so sadly, none of the leading guys obliged and we had to wait for the second half of the field before the carnage began. Check the times on the photos - first one is early, middle comes about half way through the glacier bit, and by the third one they've nearly all passed by. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Once we'd enjoyed watching that and had a cup of coffee I was skiing with Mrs David Ash while David went off on his own. The conditions were just fabulous - winter snow and even some powder - I know it's hard to see but there is a skier on the Wall. The pistes were firm, but nice and I've also added a pic of the Dome Nord looking down at the end of business + one of the same view of Puy Salie at the end of the day to compare with the last 2. Just as a special treat I've added a pic of the Pic Blanc at ADH taken from the Jandri Express on the way down.
It really wasn't possible to get much better in the summer. Not much else to say really.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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easiski, looks wonderful - and some nice tracks on the Wall to prove it. We didn't see any snow yesterday when we were leaving, but only because the vis was so bad; it was chucking it down and freezing cold.
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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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easiski, what a difference! I bet the bikes were fun to watch - how do they get them up the t-bar?
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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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easiski, I have an available weekend on 1-2 August, you might almost convince me to get over there if I can get a friend to join me...
I saw the back side of your mountains driving back from my Corsican ferry...(Aix-en-Provence to Grenoble road)...last year I didn't miss skiing until September, this year withdrawal symptoms are kicking in early.
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Just coming to the end of our week in LDA. The light snowfall last weekend produced excellent conditions last Sunday and Monday.
On Wednseday and Thursday the Jandri was closed due to high winds. Woke up quite excited today at the prospect of getting up there again for our last session. There was a queue for the Jandri right down to the base of the ramps. Got to the top and the runs either side of the T-bar look awful - lots of ice and rivers mixed with a little porridge on the near side and the run on the far side is actually closed. Surprisingly, no queue for the T-bar. The first few hundred metres are tricky with several rivers and large dips appearing. We don't slide as we go up we float on porridge. At the top we turn left away from the park and it is very mucky. There is no white on the surface. it is grey mush for about 100 metres, with small (40mm) rocks exposed. We ski down but I am not happy, I am not at all confident, it is slushy mixed with large sheets of ripply (not smooth) ice. Moguls are starting to form in the porridge. I personally have a very unpleasant ride down, concentrtaing on staying upright. I have several stops to psyche myself up but it doesn't help.
The last 200/300 metres are abysmal, the whole surface is grey, with wide rivers and some porridge, some riders are straight running but many are taking it very cautiuosly. Nick is at the almost empty T-bar queue ahead of me. We decide to bin it, Nick is concerned about damage to his skis and I am just plain not enjoying it. We get the Jandri back down. The Jandri is almost empty, I can only assume a lot people must be in the park. The 2 main runs were the worst I have seen them in 5 years by a good margin and that includes one trip we made in August, whereas at the begining of the week they were excellent.
I hope it snows again tonight to improve things for any folks arriving tomorrow.
What a miserable last morning, hmmm, maybe now I should have an ice-cream to cheer me up.
Roll on February.
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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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micky, What a shame, I'm not surprised though as it's been really hot even with the gale force winds. As I write it's very windy again and I'm losing TV frequently. Hot weather on it's own is bad enough, but hot weather with either rain or wind is very bad news. The lack of freeze/thaw conditions really wipe it out.
I didn't go up today, and reading the above I'm really glad I stayed at home and finished my sun porch!
horizon, While it would be very nice to see you, and perhaps any skiing is better than no skiing, keep an eye on the reports and also the temps. If it gets cold and snows again we'll have another respite, and it might be worth coming. Otherwise you're probably better off in the fridge or 'popping' up to Hillend.
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Just got back from a week in LDA, much like micky. Managed 3 days of good summer riding first half of the week - Friday was a bit of a shame, was hoping that some of the rain on thurs/fri had falled as snow but the slope was really getting rather sketchy even by mid-morning, although great fun watching the race-trainers splashing about in the small lake that had formed by the lower drags.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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easiski, just noticed your pic of the bike race from the 19th - think that is my group of 4 standing on the right of the picture as the bikes came down. will have to upload some pics later
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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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going here in a few weeks guys,anybody got an idea what the conditions will be like
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You know it makes sense.
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snowtheway2go, No idea! We can easily have 2 weeks of blizzards at this time of year - or it might be closed. It's really not great at the moment, but it's still skiable and we only need a few cold days and a bit of snow to bring it back for another week or so.
Very hard first thing this morning. It's so black now that I've taken up my old skis and brought down my new ones. It changed to total soft mush in about 30 mins when the warm south wind got up. Roll on the day when man can control the weather..
Pic looking up at the Lauze fromthe top of Muretouse
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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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Richard_Sideways, Thanks for the link - pity they weren't running it today when it would have been far more entertaining! It was rock hard all morning with more than a little ice around too. Amazingly it stayed really hard until just before 12.00, so we then got 30-40 mins of nice conditions on the Dome North before it all closed and we had to go home. Oh well. Pic looking up Puy Salié at 09.22 this morning. The piste bashers are really doing a fantastic job of bringing it back every night to a skiable morning the next day - just a pity it's staying so hot!  Nice for holidays in the afternoon though.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nice pics, as always, easiski.
Looks like the glacier is getting battered. Are they running any snowguns up there at the moment?
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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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 Whitegold, We don't have any snow cannons above 2,100m (how ecologically responsible is that! ) The glacier is quite deep right up to near the end, so it would be almost impossible to install them. You couldn't run them in the ice because the movement of the glacier would fracture the pipes, and you couldn't run them surface because the pipes would freeze up - catch 22 really. the other thing is that with the erosion/melting of the glaciers, there's probably only about 15 -20 years max left to ski on them, so the huge investment to overcome the above problems wouldn't be worth it.
Last night was much hotter, so I was expecting the worst when we got up there, but it was OK. Actually the best conditions since Sunday.  Unfortunately, because it was better first thing it was major slush by the end of business. I hope the forecast for colder weather next week (isotherm 0 degs down to 3,300m on one night! ) is true and that the promised spit of precipitation on Sunday arrives as the white stuff.
Pic looking over towards the park and the superpipe from the top of the Dome North at the end of business today
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I did take a pic on Friday, but didn't have time to post. I was up on Sat and it was much the same - very dodgy right at the bottom by the end of the day. However Yesterday there was a full scale blizzard (heavy rain, thunder and lightning down here all morning), and apart from a lot of fresh snow being blown off it's looking much better today. A bit of snow has stuck, it's cold and there were sundry flocons floating around all morning. We can only hope.
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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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Hope your feeling better now
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Yes easiski, hope you're recovering. Glad you've got a bit of fresh snow. 
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By the sounds of it, looks like I was the only snowhead on my bike that morning, sorry easiski, will try harder to fall off next year, just make sure you have the camera ready 
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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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Today was very hot again, and the snow deteriorated quite quickly. To be fair I wasn't up there all that early though. Here's a pic of L - R Muretouse, Dome North and Puy Salie North lifts after everyone had gone today. there was really nice, if soft, snow between the Muretouse and Dome Nord once the racers had all pi**ed off!!
the other pic shows the work which is going on to the winter half pipe. I don't know how big it will be, and I don't suppose it'll be as big as the summer super pipe, but it will clearly be bigger than last year.
Also just for the Ioda followers: here's where I found him this morning!
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double post
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