 Poster: A snowHead
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| nozawaonsen wrote: |
| clarky999, sounds good. Nice video too! Just need to get the all clear from the doctors soon. Getting a little frustrating seeing all the snow falling... |
where are you based? would be cool to get some turns in when you're better!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Got roped into work today, as loads of people were 'sick' (definitely definitely not skiing powder  ), so no skiing. Snowing again now though, and not working 'til 2pm tomorrow, should hopefully be a good morning!
For those of you flying out this weekend, although it's been snowing down in the city, roads and everything are still fine, so I imagine the airport will be too.
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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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Yesterday was pretty good at Nordkette, 25-30cms of fresh, mostly on a soft but previously tracked/cruddy base, but still a lot of fun. There's some fun little mini-lines running under the chairlift in the park (but like a ridge separating the two lines through the park, with some lips to hit/jump off), which no-one ever seems to ski (at least until they see me having fun on it). Tends to preserve powder quite well, and I got a couple of fresh thigh deep laps on it, at least 'til everyone else clocked on. Ski school took a lap through which ruined what was still left, so I took one of the ski routes to the bottom. 30cms of fresh completely untouched expect for a couple of people touring up it, very nice, other than zero vis. Was pretty weird weather, blazing sun up top, snowing from mid mountain down.
Intended to post a couple of screen shots from my gopro, but everything was massively over-exposed - doesn't seem to like bright sun too much (HD1).
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Snowing again! Not super heavily yet, but can't complain!
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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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30cm fresh pow here in North Yorkshire in last 12 hours, and still coming down and Redeemers at the ready for 3pm shredding session only problem no lifts......farmers field off piste looking ever more attractive, 50m drop, 500 metre run down to the sheep feeder.....clarky999, not quite Tirol, but quite like bottom 500m of Fang on way down to Nassereinbahn if you use imagination but deep snow nonetheless!
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Markymark29, Nice! You've got barons on your Redeemers right? Get the skins out!
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Markymark29, how far are you from Yad Moss/Weardale???
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Going to put a few turns in our yard then go for Sheep Feeder gully, av risk 5 and still blasting so need to be careful just yet, estimate first run about 2.30pm, clarky999, yeah, Dukes. Practice a few kick turns!
kitenski, fair way, can't even get the car down the drive.......need a Pistenbully for the local fields!
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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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Markymark29, wot no snow tyres 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Markymark29, no worries!
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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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Skied at Axamer Lizum with Samerberg Sue this morning (thanks for the haggis, cheddar and bacon!!), and conditions were pretty damn good. -6ºC in the car park at 1580m, bright and sunny. Pistes were in good condition, fairly firm but grippy. Found a couple of short sections of old but well preserved pow, nothing too deep, 10-15cms, but still welcome. The ungroomed black run under the Birgitzkoepel lift was a lot of fun, nicely mogulled, with softer, cruddier moguls off to the side.
First time in years I've been to Axamer on a good vis day, have to say I'm very impressed with some of the terrain you can access without too much effort form the lifts! Couloirs, and more open faces... Will probably go again tomorrow, and try some of the more mellow offpiste off the back of the Birgitzkoepel (towards Mutteralm/Goetzens - lifts are closed [or don't run anymore?] on that side from what I can work out, so either skin back up or get the ski bus round. Hopefully persuade my gf to come over the weekend and try some of the more adventurous stuff, depending on conditions (though I think her snowboarding friend wants to come, which'll put a spanner in that plan...).
Some pictures:
Skin track already set to access some of the couloirs form the Damenabfahrt (Blue 1):
DSC01467 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Bit more perspective:
DSC01468 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Lots of terrain for more 'pure' touring, off the back of the ski area. You can't see it in the photo, but there is a skin track (and a couple of descent tracks) on there. Lots of potential... Need to look into that more in the future, should be some nice long good snow descents in the right conditions, without too much effort:
DSC01474 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
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Looks fantastic. Thinking of a weekend trip here next season if we can sort fights from the North. Any tips on where to stay? Innsbruck then bus up to hill each day?
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You know it makes sense.
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Light snow, not enough yet on the ground to make any difference to skiing.
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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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| sah wrote: |
| Looks fantastic. Thinking of a weekend trip here next season if we can sort fights from the North. Any tips on where to stay? Innsbruck then bus up to hill each day? |
Do you mean an Innsbruck trip, or an Axamer Lizum trip?
Staying in Innsbruck gives you a bit more flexibility on where to go in the morning, Nordkette, Stubai (or Schlick2000), Patscherkoffel, Axamer or Kuhtai.
If you plan to ski at Axamer for the weekend, you'll be best off staying somewhere like Goetzens. Couple of kilometres down from the ski area (free ski bus - or free parking at the ski lifts, if yout ake a car), 15 minute drive from Innsbruck, plenty of hotels, restaurants (presumably bars), etc. It's also possible to ski down to Goetzens from Axamer, off the the back of the Birgitzkoepel. I'm not sure what the status of this run is, btw. Yesterday it looked like an ungroomed piste, but it wasn't open (though there looked to be enough snow in Goetzens for it to be skiable if you aren't too precious about your bases). I'm not sure if it really is a piste, or if it was a piste but now doesn't get used, or if it was only ever an offpiste route - I need to check it out. Several people had/were skinning up it yesterday, anyway. You need reasonable snow cover for this to be possible, though.
There are two hotels right up at the ski area, one (Olympiahof?) looks horrendous, from the outside at least - best left to school groups. The other (Lizumerhof?) looked nicer, though I've never been in it. There are two small schirmbars which are quite fun for apres, but after that your options for dinner/drinking would be limited if staying up there - personally I'd rather be in Goetzens.
If looking for a package, I know Inghams go to the Hotel Edelweiss in Goetzens. I stayed there about a decade ago, think it's quite nice, but don't remember too much of it.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Thanks for the info. Was thinking more of Innsbruck in general and doing a different area each day for 3 or 4 days. To be honest my only knowledge of the area comes from this thread, but the ease of access (flights permitting) and your photos have got me thinking it would be a good plan. Wouldn't do a package, not against them per se but it's just easier to book a hotel and each person to sort their own flights, especially for a weekend.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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For one reason and another, I didn't end up going to either the Hahnenkamm or Axamer's steeps today, and just went up to Patscherkofel for the afternoon. Fairly nice, grippy pistes on the top half, nasty ice on much of the lower mountain though (spandex-fetish race freaks seemed to like it though). Decided to go for a little mission late on, and hiked up to the summit. This used to be serviced by an old chair, which was removed a couple of seasons ago. Now these upper slopes are only used by tourers, so the snow stays quite nice. Forgot my skins, and the bootpack took me about an hour and 20 mins - snow was pretty soft, and far to often I'd sink up to my hips. The views off the back were pretty cool, once again revealing a metric-shit-tonne of more potential - I really really need to sort out a proper touring rig:
You can just about make out some tracks out there:
DSC01486 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Quite windy on the top
DSC01481 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
I think this is looking along the Brenner towards Italy, though it could be Stubaital
DSC01479 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Looking over the Inn valley (and Innsbruck) to Nordkette - the obvious plateaux mid-mountain centre left is the middlestation, Seegrube, with lifts rising up to the couloirs above. Pylon in the foreground is from the old chairlift
DSC01490 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Looking West along the Inn valley, in the sunset. Snow on this side is pretty windblasted
DSC01487 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Traversed a little skiers left (West) to find the nicest snow, some ares of slabby snow to watch out for (phone pic)
IMAG0487 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Looking down the last part of the descent, nothing particularly interesting about the terrain, pretty mellow really (phone pic)
IMAG0491 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Looking back up from the main ski area, 20-30cms of very nice powder, only slightly wind-affected on the surface
DSC01503 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
The obvious line is the old piste, still where most of the uphill-traffic is. Plenty of powder left between the down tracks
DSC01517 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Looking back along the Inntal again
DSC01513 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Sunset shot, just before dropping back into the main ski area
DSC01506 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Not sure I'd bother with the bootpack again, well worth skinning up for though, seems to hold and preserve powder pretty well.
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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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What happened to all those lines behind Axams we were looking at on Thursday? 
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Samerberg Sue, my gf invited her snowboarding friend over for the weekend, so anything interesting was off the menu! In the end they took ages over breakfast and dropping someone at the train station, then decided just to just go into the city rather than skiing, which meant I didn't get up the hill 'til nearly 2, didn't really have time to get to Axamer and get anything done, Patsch is much closer on the bus.
As I reached the bottom, the 'Synchronised Skiing World Championships' were kicking off under floodlights  Very good skiers, but so weird...
Going to Axamer tomorrow, but a snowboarder won't get up any of those couloirs (where's the 'mildly annoyed' smily?).
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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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^^ Though Sqikunst from TGR was up in those couloirs today:
Looks good!
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Very heavy snow this morning, only been going for a few hours though, and only forecasted for a few more...
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clarky999, don't know about your neck of the woods but the snow I was shovelling off my car was incredibly wet and heavy! could make for a nasty off-piste mix if it is as wet and heavy at your end of the Inntal! 
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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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meh, they've descended down the front side, you can just about make the tracks out, though they don't stand out as well as the skin track - lots of similar options all the way along that limestone outcrop. The dude who posted the pic of the descent above (one of the couloirs lookers left of my picture of the skin track) was asking on TGR about descents off the back. There probably is a way down towards one of the Stubaital villages, though no-one seems sure. Further to lookers right apparently you can skin up, then ski down the back into the Schlick2000 ski area.
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Samerberg Sue, doesn't seem too bad, though it's now stopped snowing (at least at my flat). Realistically I doubt it was snowing long enough to drop much more than 10/15cms up top.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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meh, this is roughly the way I see it:
Axamer:Schlick potential by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
The two black circles show where the two ski areas are, black dot is (very) roughly where the top of the Hoadl lift is, the blue lines (very) roughly where blue pistes run, thick red lines the obvious ridges to skin up to, thin red lines potential routes down, obviously need to check on a proper map and in the flesh (from both sides) where exactly the best routes are and how feasible the routes off the back are in reality.
To the left of the above, you can see where you could traverse form the Hoadl under the Kalkogel, ski down (left) into the valley, skin up the other side, then ski back down again, as in this image:
Looks like you could then either continue down the valley to a road, or skin back into the Axamer Lizum ski area after.
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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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Very nice!
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Raining 
Not sure to how high, but doesn't feel particularly cold at 700m... Stubai will probably be getting snow, at least.
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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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Samerberg Sue, only working Friday/Sat next week 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Intermittent light snow all day, finally started coming down properly around 3pm (seems like we missed the rain places further West have had, freezing level must have dropped before the front hit here). Figuring it had been heavier up on the mountain, I decided to go up Nordkette for a couple of runs to check out the conditions. 15-20cms of new snow so far, on top of breakable crust (firmer crust in places). New snow hasn't bonded as well as it might have, approaching a very mellow mini-gulley type I propagated some cracks to a metre or two in front of me - it was a rolling convex entry, but I was still surprised as it's pretty mellow - I backed off, anyway. Still snowing, so very low visibility.
I've been having problems with the helmet mount for my gopro, and getting the camera set at the right angle, so today I tried out my new chest harness - camera struggled with conditions, light was too flat for it to pick up much, but the angles seem to be better - maybe still pointing downa bit too much (screenshots from VLC, so quality is awful):
Screen shot 2013-02-02 at 18.09.29 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Screen shot 2013-02-02 at 18.15.37 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Visibility really was pretty terrible:
Screen shot 2013-02-02 at 17.55.09 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Snow was nice though, head for the trees:
Screen shot 2013-02-02 at 18.13.45 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Screen shot 2013-02-02 at 18.12.28 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Only four other people on the mountain, so lift rides were a bit lonely:
Screen shot 2013-02-02 at 17.53.41 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
If it carries on snowing like this, tomorrow should be good...
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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 just the result of the chest mount. I have mine setup with the camera pointing up a bit hard against the flat platform of the mount and if you are skiing reasonable angles you end up with lots of leg and ski because of where your body position is. Conditions look great.
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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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meh, thought that might be the case, still seems to work better/be more manageable than guestimating where it's pointing on your helmet.
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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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clarky999, yup I still can't seem to get that right either!
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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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As expected, today did not suck. Going through photos now...
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A little taster:
My friend Magdalena scoring the goods
DSC01546 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Sun 3-02-13 21:32; edited 1 time in total
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And one of me (by Magdalena):
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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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Epic!
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Today was pretty good at Nordkette - probably 40-60cms of fresh, hard to tell how much exactly, and some spots with extra wind loading. Snowing all day and low vis, so we stuck to the trees - didn't get the cameras out too often 'cos of the conditions - and they struggled when we did. The pictures of me (yellow jacket) are by my friend Magdalena (dark jacket), the other photos are mine.
Funny story of the day: I'd slyly wangled myself into position to be the first off the first lift of the day, all worked out and I was skiing while the rest of the cable car were still clicking in. Skied down the short track, and went to drop into my first powder run of the day... And somehow fell over on my first turn... At which point the rest of the pack shot past - karma's a bitch!
DSC01541 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
DSC01546 - Version 3 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
DSC01540 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
DSC01547 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
DSC01550 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
DSC01543 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
DSC01545 by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Still need to go through the gopro footage, though given my luck with it recently it'll probably all be fogged out...
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads  on Wed 13-02-13 22:30; edited 1 time in total
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