 Poster: A snowHead
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@davidof, Chamrousse was unreachable? Why? Is there a lot of snow there already?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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On the plus side the conditions for the next few days are going to be fab.
Maybe just about worth the transfer pain.
Do we have a  prize for the longest (hrs) journey.
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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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| stefoy4me wrote: |
Left Reims at 3am and arrived in Ste foy exactly 24 hours later!!!!!!
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Gene Pitneyesque!
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Journey down was slow but steady. Left Tignes VC at 6:30 this morning and now sitting in Departures at GVA. Took about 4 hours.
Traffic was horrendous on the other side between Moutiers and Albertville. Seemingly caused by a handful of people panicking and stopping on hard shoulder and even lane 1 to fit snow chains. The roads were clear enough tho back to Bourg.
Saw Gendarmerie checking cars going up the mountain at Bourg also.
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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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@davidof, roads here seem to be pretty much clear, though I've only been as far as Venosc. But from past experience I'd say you could get to both Alpe d'Huez and 2Alpes on winter tryes.
On the plus side, the snow looks awesome and the sun is out. I predict that the week will be worth the pain! 
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@davidof,
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I hope the thread proved useful for people to pool the information they had on a difficult day.
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You are doing the most heroic job. Chapeau et merci.
Alarming words from Noza (I'm travelling next w/e):
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| There also looks like a reasonable possibility of snow to the valley floors next Saturday/Sunday. At present nothing on the scale of this weekend's snowfall. But worth keeping an eye on. |
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| Szymon wrote: |
| @davidof, Chamrousse was unreachable? Why? Is there a lot of snow there already? |
without chains or snow tires, about 5cm of snow and ice on the road from 1100 meters on Friday; I mentioned to the missus that I would have left resort on Friday afternoon and slept somewhere en-route.
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Can anyone confirm if there has been any snow yet? I've read the thread from start to finish and nothing is jumping out at me. 
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Finally made it to Geneva at 4:30! Things started moving out once we got to the dual carriageway after Aime and those of us on winter rubber could do more than 10kmh - as far as I could see on the way out it was purely volume of traffic (or more specifically unprepared traffic) - the roads were all passable. Started dumping again between Alberville and Annecy, but no traffic by that point so it was fine - other than I could have done without the hypnotic effect of driving into snow by that time!
Glad to hear everyone's got there safely in the end - we met a family just leaving our hotel in Geneva to make the way up as we checked in, suspect they were still in for some delays.
Hope you all have a great week.
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| davidof wrote: |
| ... I mentioned to the missus that I would have left resort on Friday afternoon and slept somewhere en-route. |
That's what we did, leaving Les Arcs at 4pm rather than our planned departure of 7am on Saturday. The forecast on Friday morning was entirely confident of the major snowfall in the Savoie, and perhaps arriving a bit earlier overnight than was previously forecast. Although the scale of the problems yesterday were a bit shocking, the fact that the roads would be chaotic was pretty obvious.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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Snowing again in the Chambery region. I'm going to roast a few chipmunks on an open fire for lunch.
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| davidof wrote: |
| ... I mentioned to the missus that I would have left resort on Friday afternoon and slept somewhere en-route. |
That's what we did, leaving Les Arcs at 4pm rather than our planned departure of 7am on Saturday. The forecast on Friday morning was entirely confident of the major snowfall in the Savoie, and perhaps arriving a bit earlier overnight than was previously forecast. Although the scale of the problems yesterday were a bit shocking, the fact that the roads would be chaotic was pretty obvious. |
ah here you go, I only suggested heading out very early on snowheads to beat the chaos, may not have been enough
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=115191&start=40#2637175
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You know it makes sense.
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Snowwrecked
A thousand people slept in the airport at Chambery yesterday, others were transported to emergency centers as Lizzard mentioned above. Big queues at Chambery airport as TO try to organize flights home with new arrivals coming in.
It has been 24 hours since the traffic information website died: http://www.savoie-routes.fr/ it was okay on Saturday morning then gave up the ghost around midday.
Locals slam authorities. Think they could have done more.
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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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@davidof, Blimey, sounds worse than Snowmageddon I 
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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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Finally made it to Ste Foy at 7am, last 40 miles took 9 hours. Most of problems around Albertville with people stuck and stopping to fit chains, no doubt making winter tyres obligatory would help. We were only checked once we got to Bourg but waved through as in a Forester with winter tyres, at no point did I feel we needed to fit chains. Road up to Ste Foy was compacted and fresh snow, no chance without winter tyres or chains. Was really hoping for ine of the snowploughs coming the other way to take out some of the planks who decidedto overtake stationary traffic!
Suns shining now, lots of snow - time to make it all worth it.
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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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Just had text from friends who did an overnight ferry Friday, expecting to hit Les Menuires yesterday morning. Took them 14 hours from Lyons to Albertville and then had to abandon into the emergency accommodation. Back in the car now near Moutiers and moving slowly.
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My only problem going to Geneva this morning was the number of cars driving absurdly slowly and as reluctant to take the chains off as they,d been yesterday to put the Damn things on. One numpty pulled onto the A40 at Sallanches with them still on. I did "kiss and fly" at the airport but all seems Ok there and there's scarcely any snow. Lots of abandoned cars on the road down. Some without chains..... What was going on there I wonder? I,m hoping I get up without putting them on again but just about all vehicles coming up the mountain had chains. We saw a number of on looking abandoned snow socks.
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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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| WobblyLegs wrote: |
| Any news on the route around the north and east side of Lake Geneva? Heading to Val d'Illiez via this route but not seen any mention of it - only the routes from Geneva. Grateful of any news on road conditions. Thanks. |
I've only been out to the top of my road this morning, but from experience, you'll probably be fine. Roads are cleared quickly round here, the gradients to val d'illiez are gentle and there are fewer non local drivers on summer tyres. 99pc of the Swiss (a figure I just made up) use winter tyres, so the snow causes less carnage.
I drove near Val D'illiez during the height of the snowfall yesterday and the issues were higher up the hill, mostly due to Belgians and Dutch putting on chains in the middle of the road. Sorry to pick out these nationalities, it would be the British too if it weren't for the fact that a higher proportion of us fly to ski.
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Just bee reading the Savoie prefect in the Dauphine libere this morning. He blames the snow - forecast - freezing rain - not forecast. Then there were HGVs on the motorway which shouldn't have been and had been forbidden from being on there.
However, the biggest cause he said were many cars that were completely unprepared for the conditions and caused the blockages to get worse and worse. He sites, lack of winter tyres, lack of chains, apparently hundreds were turned around at peages without snow chains at all. He then says many stopped in the middle of carriageways to put snow chains on too early, many blocked roads when they put them on too late.
France doesn't want to mandate winter tyres, as Germany, austria and I think the swiss have done, but I can see it happening after this. The german law IIRC is actually that you can use summer tyres - but if you venture out in frost/snow conditions without winter tyres you are breaking the law and woe betide you.
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| pam w wrote: |
| ......We saw a number of on looking abandoned snow socks. |
Are snowsocks a waste of time in these conditions? Everything I read suggested they were decent and now certified equivalent to snow chains in France. Driving next week with summer tyres (I can't afford the c£600 outlay for one trip) and autosocks. Worried. Gah.
(hello, by the way, new member, been reading but not posting)
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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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FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS, welcome to sH! Good question... personally I've always found snowsocks effective.
emwmarine, yeah, Andorra passed a law last year saying that winter tyres or fitted chains/socks are obligatory when there's snow on the side of the road... but caved in to pressure from the tourism lobby and made the law only applicable to Andorrans, thus rendering it useless (since the Andorrans all have plush cars with winter tyres anyway; the carnage is caused by the French and Spanish visitors).
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My husband left at 5am and got home at 10pm having made two runs Morz- GVA. He swears it is idiots who don't chain up when they can and end up stopping in the middle of the road that was the main source of delays.
And people stopping.
KEEP GOING YOU IDIOT
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Nadenoodlee, I have been thinking of the transfer drivers - what do they do? treat it like a shuttle service and just get there when they can, and take whoever is around and waiting? We used SkiLifts/Getaway last week (as we had a discount code from the ski show) and I think they have a desk at GVA, do Skiidy do likewise?
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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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AFAIK, in the UK TomTom traffic uses data from Vodafone. It's not relevant whether the drivers are using data or not because the system works on the regular handshakes the mobiles and base stations perform. From that data they can work out the number of vehicles in the road and the speed they move from one base station to another. The amount of data transmitted is tiny so I can't imagine it impacts the network.
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@foxtrotzulu, my TomTom regularly loses live traffic services on the M25 and M1 in rush hour - well known that there just isn't enough bandwidth on the network
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You know it makes sense.
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Left la Tania this morning just after 10.45. Journey up to moutiers was good a bit of a jam getting to the 3v round about but after that wasnt bad traffic to Geneva. Busy in the airport.
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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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| Pyremaniac wrote: |
| FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS, welcome to sH! Good question... personally I've always found snowsocks effective. |
Ah cool, thanks. I bought them for ease of fitting rather. Just practiced and had them on in 30 seconds so happy in that respect.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Epic journey from Macon to La Rosiere - 20hrs! Left Macon At 7.30 am arrived just after 3.30 am. Our first attempt at driving to the Alps! We found the police made us put snow chains on and then they weren't needed, so we took them off again - on and off a few times. Good job we'd practised at home! Anyway we are here now and the snow is awesome, so it was all worth it. Vin chaud in hand
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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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Hats off to Eurostar for getting us home yesterday. Although departure from Moutiers was delayed slightly (probably helpful to those trying to make their way to the station, although no problem for our transfer driver at 8am) and progress slow, it was sobering to see the completely blocked roads between Moutiers and Albertville as we went along and realised that although we were late there were thousands of people stuck. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn on our return that due to the delay (about 2 hours in total) we get a free trip on the Eurostar as compensation - I was just glad to be back without too much fuss. Kings Cross was closed though due to engineering works, which meant a unplanned diversion to Liverpool St to get us home. It's those stuck on the roads overnight and in airports like Chambery that I feel sorry for.
Trains aren't always perfect - I added the French for "strike" to my vocabulary 3 weeks ago on my way to Courchevel - but on this occasion far better than the alternatives it would seem.
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@FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS, My cleaners were turned back on the Les Gets Road as they had snowsocks, luckily for him all three cars/vans also had chains in. depends on the Gendarmes really.
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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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@kieranm, Yeah, I got a free Eurostar ticket once, but it's only 1 way and I never got the chance to use it.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@emwmarine, dwitzerland - I don't think it's changed recently, although I did hear a news report that snow tyres are obligatory - my understanding is that if you're in an accident and you don't have snow tyres, it's more or less your fault, difficult to prove otherwise, and you may find yourself uninsured.
I don't know anyone here who doesn't kust automatically switch seasonally.
N.B. Aostan motorwats require snow tyres 15.10-15.4.
Although I've never seen any checks.
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@FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS, I also saw plenty of vehicles making good progress with snow socks.
I did put my chains on coming up. I stopped behind 4 vehicles all chaining up. Some had tried to pass them, including a big 4wd effort but got stuck on the other carriageway. I was clearly going nowhere for a while so thought I might as well chain up myself rather than be responsible for the next fustercluck. There was a lot of snow on the road. I suspect some drivers are failing to tighten their chains. Just a couple of metres will loosen them a fair bit. The breakdown trucks are out picking up the abandoned cars. Good money for some!
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They go 'off rota' @Pamski, so basically rather than waiting for their allocated arrivals the team at the airport match whoever is there first to the newest arrivals. I don't think anyone missed flights yesterday it was more the delayed arrivals causing knock on effects.
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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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Road up to La Plagne was black by 3pm today with snowploughs driving up and down salt/spreading gritting.
It's still snowing...
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Road between Les Arcs and BSM totally clear this evening. There were some gendarmes doings checks one the way down just outside Arcs 1600 - but I think they were checking that drivers had "removed* chains - as the road was almost totally clear.
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