 Poster: A snowHead
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I know we can't generalise...but does anyone else think, that in recent years, it feels like the seasons have moved by a month. October often feels like how September used to be, and so on. The ski seasons could go on later in many places, but resorts choose to close.
I view the actual 'holiday' ski season from Last week of December until mid april.
Skiing as a sport, recreation, I view from November until May.
I'm sure the snow will come in the Alps. Just 'late' again.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| spud wrote: |
| resorts choose to close. |
I'm not sure they "choose" to close but close due to lack of visitors making opening economic. In normal snow years a number of French resorts could probably go through to June.
What is clear is that there are less days of snow on the ground than in Europe's "golden era" of the late 60s to early 80s. To date this has largely been accounted for by better slope preparation (removal of rocks), better maintenance of the snow that does fall and snowmaking.
but today's keen skier needs to remain flexible and ski when and where the snow is, that means DIY, last minute booking, couch surfing etc. Even last year you could have managed three or four trips with good conditions.
If you are going to book 8 months in advance book in February or March, or even Easter somewhere high when resorts are relatively empty. Not for the 10th of December !
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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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| saikee wrote: |
It seems many SH think if it snows then skiing is on.
I rather think it takes at least a metre of snow compacted (grooming and used by other skiers) to at a minimum of 0.3m thickness and with over 90% of the lifts operational before the sport is enjoyable. |
I am struggling to understand how you could possibly justify such a generalisation!
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| davidof wrote: |
| spud wrote: |
| resorts choose to close. |
I'm not sure they "choose" to close but close due to lack of visitors making opening economic. In normal snow years a number of French resorts could probably go through to June.
What is clear is that there are less days of snow on the ground than in Europe's "golden era" of the late 60s to early 80s. To date this has largely been accounted for by better slope preparation (removal of rocks), better maintenance of the snow that does fall and snowmaking.
but today's keen skier needs to remain flexible and ski when and where the snow is, that means DIY, last minute booking, couch surfing etc. Even last year you could have managed three or four trips with good conditions.
If you are going to book 8 months in advance book in February or March, or even Easter somewhere high when resorts are relatively empty. Not for the 10th of December ! |
Completely agree... it's the travel industry in Europe that needs to change it's policy imho.
Ski Seasons by Industry tend to got from early Dec to late March early April for Skiing.
Summer hols tend to go from Mid May to early October.
April/May and October/November are 4 months of the year that get pretty much ignored by holiday makers in Europe, unless you travel further afield.
Tbh...I can see the whole package deal think completely dieing. I only use it, if it works out cheaper than doing it yourself. Often you can get cheap deals.
For instance... Marrekesh for a week HB in a 4* Hotel, was cheaper than booking with Ryan Air and booking with the Hotel direct. By about £250 in October.
It happens all the time.
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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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| saikee wrote: |
| I rather think it takes at least a metre of snow compacted (grooming and used by other skiers) to at a minimum of 0.3m thickness and with over 90% of the lifts operational before the sport is enjoyable. |
I guess that depends on what you consider to be enjoyable skiing. I've skied on a lot less snow and had a brilliant time. Last season I skied at various times between 28 September and 23 June and had probably my best season ever, and that was in a winter when the snow in many places was infamously poor. If there's skiing available but you're not enjoying it you're probably doing it wrong.
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Last season I skied at various times between 28 September and 23 June and had probably my best season ever, and that was in a winter when the snow in many places was infamously poor.. |
"Rob, you know, skiing is like making love to a beautiful woman, a poor snow year is like the half empty singles bar largely populated by munters. If you want the beautiful women you have to work harder but you can still train on the munters and with your eyes shut the sensations are much the same, bar the occasional rock, grass, soggy spot or gravel patch". --- Swiss Toni
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| davidof wrote: |
| If you are going to book 8 months in advance book in February or March, or even Easter somewhere high when resorts are relatively empty. Not for the 10th of December ! |
Agreed, for an average year, maybe mid-Jan onwards for the "average" Euro ski resort of 2000/2500m. And winter does "seem" to be moving later although once you hit April you have the longer days and warmer sun so the snow is bound to melt. Two months only then......
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| davidof wrote: |
| "Rob, you know, skiing is like making love to a beautiful woman, a poor snow year is like the half empty singles bar largely populated by munters. If you want the beautiful women you have to work harder but you can still train on the munters and with your eyes shut the sensations are much the same, bar the occasional rock, grass, soggy spot or gravel patch". --- Swiss Toni |
Very good advice, as ever, from the immortal Swiss Toni. I try to lead my life according to his guiding principles.
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| Quote: |
"Rob, you know, skiing is like making love to a beautiful woman, a poor snow year is like the half empty singles bar largely populated by munters. If you want the beautiful women you have to work harder but you can still train on the munters and with your eyes shut the sensations are much the same, bar the occasional rock, grass, soggy spot or gravel patch". --- Swiss Toni
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Can't image how to survive the occasional rock, grass, soggy spot or gravel patch with the yes shut!  You guys must be doing the extreme skiing.
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saikee, you're getting old
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'm new here so don't know where the OP is coming from but if you look back at the first post on this thread it does look to be tainted with glass half full itus.
Looking at Val Thorens now, as soon as the piste bashers whizz round tonight the on piste snow looks pretty reasonable.
To me the season going forward could be wonderful or rubbish but it certainly isn't a write off at this stage.
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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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red 27,
Nop. Just having a bit of fun of a dire situation which may get changed in the next couple of weeks.
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| billb wrote: |
| davidof wrote: |
| If you are going to book 8 months in advance book in February or March, or even Easter somewhere high when resorts are relatively empty. Not for the 10th of December ! |
Agreed, for an average year, maybe mid-Jan onwards for the "average" Euro ski resort of 2000/2500m. And winter does "seem" to be moving later although once you hit April you have the longer days and warmer sun so the snow is bound to melt. Two months only then...... |
I'm not so sure, I know a few years doesn't really count as a trend, but this is the first season since 2008 that I haven't had *good* skiing (inc powder!) in November and early Dec - and I still expect to get some good pre-Christmas skiing in this year (gutted I had to leave Innsbruck for the UK today, whilst most lifts aren't running judging by the webcams whacking out the skins and touring binders would yield serious rewards today/tomorrow!).
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You know it makes sense.
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clarky999, +1. My experience of the last 5 or 6 season in Austria is that there is normally good skiing from Nov onwards.
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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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clarky999, waynos, I think one factor in this is the increased use of cannon(s) which means that they can normally keep the season going into April not matter what - like last year - but they can't/won't start from nothing with them in November.
Thus the impression that the season has 'moved' perhaps?
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Poster: A snowHead
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red 27, cannons are much more important to boost a poor early season than in prolonging a poor late season.
clarky999, yep, a few years doesn't count.
Season doesn't seem to have moved perceptibly to me since 1988. Although according to everyone then it had move prior.
I'm not sure whether there's evidence for either, especially given sampling bias and subjective memory.
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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 speaking as someone who had to shovel a foot of snow off a drive at 6.30 this morning that was cleared last night I can say the season isn't going to be a write off, it actually looks pretty promising
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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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adamj11, heavy snow in Milton Keynes? You know it's going to be a great season!
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Todays menu -
Entree
Hats
Plat du Jour
Words
Dessert
Humble Pie
Just wondered if any of the contributers to this thread were hungry?
I'm not sure I've seen so much snow fall in one go any time in the last 5 years out here. Certainly not since 2008/9.
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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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stevomcd, preach brother!
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Its what you make it at end of the day. If you want a shite holiday you will have one.
We had went to Morzine last year 2nd week feb and it was pretty dire as everyone knows.
However we skied every day in our week break 10am till 4pm and had a ball.
It was slushy down low, icey and patchy but we skied and that's what we came for.
Life is unpredictable but we slowplough on and ski breaks are the same.
Its a tought game in a seasonal business where you are a few bad seasons away from failure but that life.
I booked up in july thinking it can't be any worse than last year and if it was same then at least I knew what I was in for and anything else was a bonus, so the thought off good dumps and base forming during december warms my cockles.
This year the pressure was on as my good lady will be at home with child for first time in 12 years so its my good mate first trip in 3-4 years and he is very excited.
Shaping up to be great break now.
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Its what you make it at end of the day. If you want a shite holiday you will have one.
We had went to Morzine last year 2nd week feb and it was pretty dire as everyone knows.
However we skied every day in our week break 10am till 4pm and had a ball.
It was slushy down low, icey and patchy but we skied and that's what we came for.
Life is unpredictable but we slowplough on and ski breaks are the same.
Its a tought game in a seasonal business where you are a few bad seasons away from failure but that life.
I booked up in july thinking it can't be any worse than last year and if it was same then at least I knew what I was in for and anything else was a bonus, so the thought off good dumps and base forming during december warms my cockles.
This year the pressure was on as my good lady will be at home with child for first time in 12 years so its my good mate first trip in 3-4 years and he is very excited.
Shaping up to be great break now.
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Ah well we can use this thread as ammo in future debates 
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I suppose skiers travelling in own transport may have a different standard for a resort lack of snow than those who has booked a full week to stay there. In reality if I have a car I simply will not put up with a resort lack of snow and has a significant parts of the lifts not operational when other resorts do not have such shortcomings. If I prepare to travel an hour before clipping on my skis I could hunt down the best resort within a radius of about 50 miles and that will give me plenty of choices. My problem starts when the whole region is lack of snow and I have booked to stay with a wrong country.
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Snowing hard in Les Arcs, again. It's the 8th day in a row when at least some, and occasional lots of snow has fallen. And there was a major storm prior to that.
Too early to tell whether this season will be a write-off.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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agree totally rob@rar. Snowing hard here in Val d'Isere again this morning... one of the best starts to a season after all! Over 250cm base.
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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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Steve Angus, It was a great start to the season last year too...
We won't really know how good a season it's been till May, really... 
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Too early to tell whether this season will be a write-off. |
All we need is a couple of weeks of relentless foehn and it could still happen. Have faith, Rob!
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You know it makes sense.
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| paulio wrote: |
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Too early to tell whether this season will be a write-off. |
All we need is a couple of weeks of relentless foehn and it could still happen. Have faith, Rob! |
I'm sure that would delight some people
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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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| paulio wrote: |
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Too early to tell whether this season will be a write-off. |
All we need is a couple of weeks of relentless foehn and it could still happen. Have faith, Rob! |
AAAAAAND Always look on the bright side of life
*whistles*
Always look on the light side of life
*whistles*
etc.
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Poster: A snowHead
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We're going away with another family over New Year. A couple of weeks ago they phoned up and said should we have a plan B? Perhaps somewhere warm? I confess I was a little nervous about conditions too.
But I remembered the one ski season I worked back in 93-94. A week before the guests were due to arrive for Christmas a ridiculously warm front came through and heavy rain made Courchevel green right to the top of the Saulire. We were crapping it about our own skiing and about how grumpy the clients who had paid a small fortune for Xmas week were going to be.
Shortly after a big cold dump made Christmas week fabulous and the whole season was magnificent for snow. Courchevel was open well into May and the cover had been great all season.
Despite the lack of an early season base, we skied off-piste nearly every day.
There is no way you can write off a season in December let alone November.
BTW - I also subscribe to the view that patchy cover does not prevent good skiing. It's character building, isnt it? 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Verdict on the season has to be at the end - one of the several reasons why this thread was a joke from the outset. At this stage we can say the start of the season in the Alps is mostly good, with some superlative, some dire. But it's not even Christmas! And we haven't heard much about the many resorts in what we used to call eastern Europe and the Pyrenees. Lets not go from the sublime to the gor blimey in this thread.
I'm only sitting here reading this because the navette, which I was going to use to go into Les Saisies to buy season Carte Neige insurance is stuck somewhere en route struggling with broken chains. Fortunately one of the other people waiting for the bus got an SMS notification. IME it can take them ages to sort that out, so I gave up. After driving in the other day, struggling fairly significantly even with snow tyres, there was nobody in the Club des Sports which is the only place to buy it. They've not ploughed our road yet and am reluctant to risk getting stuck using my own car, as I have people coming to lunch.
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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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Nobody mention the Dolomites.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Just wondering if we have enough info to write this season off yet, or whether these things are best decided at the end of the season?
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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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rob@rar,
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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achilles, 
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rob@rar, too much snow has ruined the season.
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waynos, speak for yourself I've had some of my best days skiing ever, and it's only 6 January.
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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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Richard_Sideways, Wow. The avalanche managed to specifically target British holidaymakers!
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FAQ
