 Poster: A snowHead
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@Redwine "Got the most honest comment from a zermatt ski school, essentially saying there aint much decent off piste unless you go deep into the glaciers. I guess its the piste for us."
Good luck to anyone going offpiste on a glacier unless with a guide, you certainly could 'go deep'.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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there is no reason to stray off the pistes in zermatt - its May here today.. the pistes are great. even if it does snow here it will be very dangerous.....enjoy a beer and stay on the piste.
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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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Redwine, try Findlerhof in Findeln for lunch. Its a little down from Chez Vrony. Really good. Have a great time, I'm now back in Liverpool.
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@Redwine,
Try Gadegghütte for fantastic views of the Theodul glacier, Stafelalp right under the Matterhorn (you can watch the ski tourers go past in due season although possibly not this season unless things pick up), Zum See (at least as good as Chez Vrony inho), Flualp especially if the band is playing. They all have excellent food and stunning views. You will be spoilt for choice.
Have a great 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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The piste up top are in great shape. Nothing off piste seems worth it, or even possible. Found some north facing things that were worth 6 turns. Sunny, and not overly crowded, except for maybe the shuttle busses. I really want to be here when it dumps.
Going to try cervinia tomorrow.
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Cervinia town @ 10 deg c these last couple of days.
Very windy. A lot of the pistes up top have been blown polished.
Run 1 to valtournenche totally slushy as to be expected at those temps.
Good fun all the same!
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For everyone heading to zermatt, hope you have a great trip. All that has been said before is accurate. Piste were great, but not enough snow for anything else. It didn't seem horribly busy, except for one day last week (Wednesday) when the link to cervinia was opened and maybe everyone wanted to make it to Italy and crammed into trockner steg.
We embraced the European lunch schedule, and had great meals based on recommendations here. Chateau etoile, flualp, were standouts for us.
We met some friends down in Saas Fe for a day also, that seems to be an interesting mountain to explore more. So fast pistes (hit 60 mph according to ski tracks), sunny days and long lunches, not too shabby a week.
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| Redwine wrote: |
For everyone heading to zermatt, hope you have a great trip. All that has been said before is accurate. Piste were great, but not enough snow for anything else. It didn't seem horribly busy, except for one day last week (Wednesday) when the link to cervinia was opened and maybe everyone wanted to make it to Italy and crammed into trockner steg.
We embraced the European lunch schedule, and had great meals based on recommendations here. Chateau etoile, flualp, were standouts for us.
We met some friends down in Saas Fe for a day also, that seems to be an interesting mountain to explore more. So fast pistes (hit 60 mph according to ski tracks), sunny days and long lunches, not too shabby a week. |
Glad you enjoyed it but such a pity it has been a poor snow year. There is more snow due this week. But again it doesn't particularly look like enough to transform things.
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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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Just back from another great week in Zermatt - agree with most of the previous comments. A couple of quite windy days up high, causing some gondolas, and the Theodulgletscher chair, to close. This meant diverting some people to the big old Trockner Steg cable car, which is obviously less affected by the wind. And of course the Gornergratbahn cog railway and the Sunnegga funicular never stop! A couple of great days in Cervinia. They still have the Pink Floyd CDs in the Ventina cafe if you ask....
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Did it snow today as anticipated? The webcams do not make it seem so. I arrive on Monday. It seems as if every storm coming from the west this season has evaded Zermatt. Very unfortunate.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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One snow storm won't do it u less it's a major 2 foot storm. Piste were generally in great shape, so that will benefit, but there is no off piste to speak of as far as I was able to see.
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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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| skiandgolfnut wrote: |
| Did it snow today as anticipated? The webcams do not make it seem so. I arrive on Monday. It seems as if every storm coming from the west this season has evaded Zermatt. Very unfortunate. |
Got to my apartment in Täsch about an hour ago. It is snowing really lightly. Looking up the valley to Zermatt it is all cloud so there may be a bit more snow falling on the mountain. There is also a system coming in from the west in a couple of hours that might be more useful. The stuff earlier today mainly passed north of here.
It really is depressing looking around. We are just under 1500m so you wouldn’t expect mega snow even if the mountains were in tremendous shape. However there is almost as much green/brown ground as there is white. The langlaufoipe (cross country) skiing route which runs round here and down the valley to Randa is unusable at a time when it should be at its best.
As you say the storms this year have not been kind to us. We are high and fairly central. That means we tend to do well out of big storms coming from the west, east or south (or less likely the north). This season not only has there not been a lot of storms in the European Alps but more to the point (from my observation of the radar rather than any scientific knowledge on my part) they seem to have been fairly broken up so most of the precipitation seems to have fallen before getting to Zermatt, whichever direction it has come from. The very thing from which we benefit in most seasons (high and central) has been to our disadvantage.
As everyone has said the pistes are still really good. I will be up on them tomorrow and I am sure I’ll have fun. But it will be March and not a single itinerary is yet open. That really is awful.
EDIT at 17.15 (CET): Der Schnee ist hier. Ich liebe den Schnee!
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A few cms in town now ....snowed quite hard for an hour or so....hoping for more...its frankly dire off piste.
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You know it makes sense.
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Snow more overnight?
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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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Unfortunately no....10 cm on hill maybe 4 in town
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Poster: A snowHead
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Nice to have some fresh snow under the skis today. However it was more boot dust than powder. Once pushed into mounds there were some really icy patches around. It seemed fairly busy. I think the fact that everything higher than Trockener Steg was closed due to wind contributed to that. Add in the poor light and it made for some interesting dynamics.
It is snowing at the moment. Every little helps. But a few large dumps would help even more.
Everyone has commented on the poor off piste. I came down run 28 from Hohtälli to Gant and stopped at the top of (the not yet open) itinerary 30 to have a look. It actually looked in good shape and if I was with an off piste guide I'd love to go down there. However I am fairly anal about not going real off piste (including closed runs) on my own - my solo off piste tends to be side piste stuff. As I was standing there a solo skier set off. It wasn't even though he was that great a skier (I don't think I am myself - but I am better than he was!). After about 100 metres you are out of view to anyone else. If anything happens to you, you are a goner. I suppose you might be seen from the Gant to Hohtälli lift but that is not a great basis for setting off skiing.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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A bit more snow overnight....yes it was pushpiles pretty quick yest and off piste was mostly abominable but this little bit extra maybe be enough to start to change things....have some tours planned next few days will report back. Another 20cms would prob do it for the itineraries....i predict moday. There I said 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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Two nights of snowing have improved things. I actually spent the whole day just going up and down the chairlift between Riffelberg up to Gifthitlli (just below Gornergrat). I hadn't intended to but those wide open spaces away from the pistes up there were covered in fresh stuff and needed to be tracked out under the gorgeous blue sky. It is a tough job but someone has to do it. Days with family and friends are always best (today I was on my own) but putting that to one side I would say that was my most enjoyable day's skiing this season.
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Since there does not seem to be a Saas Fee thread I will report here, assuming that Saas Fee-ers will look at the nearest neighbour (like I do).
About 20-30cm last night, but it is high moisture content and heavy. It is not powder 
Pistes were great, all of them.
Crowds were small.
Weather was fine enough, not sunny but decent visibility.
The off piste looked so tempting...it was so tempting...but it was heavy stuff, and thet is why it remained largely untracked all day, after a few turns you realised why everybody else was on the lovely pistes!
No shortage of snow though...I don't know if Saas Fee has been getting a micro climate effect that Zermat has missed, but everythig is well endowed with snow.
I would say that the risk of (slab) avalanche is very high...be careful!
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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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| rungsp wrote: |
Since there does not seem to be a Saas Fee thread I will report here, assuming that Saas Fee-ers will look at the nearest neighbour (like I do).
No shortage of snow though...I don't know if Saas Fee has been getting a micro climate effect that Zermat has missed, but everythig is well endowed with snow.
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You’d need someone who has been to both places in the last few weeks to comment. What is “good” is so subjective. I keep meaning to pop round to Saas Fee but ridiculously never have done so. When I have a car it would not be a bad journey, although it is a bit of a bind by public transport. As the crow flies a lot of the Saas Fee area is closer to me here in Täsch than the southern Zermatt area (and much closer than Cervinia and Valtournenche which I can easily access by lifts). Unfortunately the crows refuse to give me a lift.
It could be that Saas Fee has had it better this year. Snow storms can get stuck in a valley or pass over or never reach a valley, regardless of what is happening in the next valley along. However, the Saas valley and the Matter valley join at Stalden. Driving up the Visp valley to Stalden earlier this week it was noticeable how little snow there was compared to most years (even the last couple which weren’t classic years). I think a lot of the whinging on this thread (to a large extent by me!) is because a lot of Snowheads go to Zermatt for the intineraries. For anyone beyond an intermediate it is what makes the area. But there has not been enough snow to open up the intineraries. I don’t think Saas Fee is so big on itineraries? For someone who was coming to Zermatt for the pistes I think they’d think things were great. Certainly the crowds are still getting pulled in. It was ridiculously busy today.
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@rungsp, thank you for the Saas Fee update. Off there on the 12th. Looks like a fair bit more snow expected until then. I'm strictly a piste skier, so hoping conditions remain tickety-boo. What's the state of the snow of the runs back to the village? Webcam of the village makes it look like it's been raining a lot.
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@suggul, 100% fine...well they were on Thursday, it was just a day trip from Verbier
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so maybe 20 cms maybe 25 in places...lots of folks getting after the side piste...its worth trying.
still think itineraries open soon....snowing hard again here this eve.
its getting good.
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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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Arrived today. Been snowing like crazy since early afternoon.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Think we just call it a foot today
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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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Started snowing again this afternoon and has not stopped.
Two days of guided off piste so far. Conditions off piste are excellent, just be prepared to hit a hidden rock here and there. Given how bad this season has been we have been tremendously lucky it seems.
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You know it makes sense.
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rain rain rain rain rain.....fack
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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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| Brothergrimm wrote: |
| rain rain rain rain rain.....fack |
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Poster: A snowHead
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Just booked a cheeky 4 day trip in 10 days - staying at the Christiania as our normal haunt, Hotel Phoenix, is full. Anyone stayed here?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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All shut today ..windy
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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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Yes! Yes! Yes!
The Stockhorn itinerary sector opened up today. I was so lucky. I am only stopping over at my Täsch apartment for two nights between two other places. I wasn't even sure I'd ski. But one look out of the window at the clearing clouds and the appearance of blue this morning and I was off. I thought I'd have a look over at Cervinia and Valtournenche to see how they were as there is a good chance I won't be back over this season. The answer is: Cervinia good except very low down; Valtournenche not so good although in a perverted way I enjoyed skiing the slushfest into town.
After that I was at Trockener Steg for a quick soup and to my astonishment saw Stockhorn was open! It certainly hadn't been open when I came up in the morning and it has not been open all season. Unfortunately it was now gone two and Trockener Steg to Stockhorn is quite a hike. I had to get skis back on and across the sectors as fast as possible. But boy was it worth it. The only lift open is the Hohtälli to Rote Nasa cable car but that is fine by me. There were only four of us in it - obviously people are not that aware it is open. The snow was not powder but it was deep and lots of it. I came down the whole way with a smile on my face - not disturbed even by finding a shallow covered rock which catapulted me forward into the snow.
It is really weird, none of the other itineraries are open. Stockhorn is usually the last but even it "should" be open late January. It just has been that sort of season.
For completeness I should note that it looks like the Kumme to Tufteren piste is going to be open tomorrow (might even have been open today). That is the final piste.
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Itinerary 30 open now as well. That is the one that comes off the red run 28 coming down from Hohtälli to Gant. So basically the same mountain face as the Stockhorn itineraries. North facing and high so should be in decent condition (I am round at Verbier at the moment so can't confirm).
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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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Are you still out @JohnMo?
How are the pistes holding up?
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| franga wrote: |
Are you still out @JohnMo?
How are the pistes holding up? |
Still out in Valais. But I am round the corner at a mate's at Nendaz (part of 4 valleys with Verbier). The conditions in the two places tend to be fairly comparable. Superb piste conditions up high. And the famous Tortin itinerary run was in excellent condition this afternoon. However get below about 2000m and it turns into a slush fest. We foolishly skied down to 1500m. One of our mates is not that good a skier. He does snowplough turns. Doing snowplough turns in slush is not recommended. He flipped and has smashed his shoulder. He is now on a flight back to U.K. tomorrow. We are anaesthetising him with alcohol this evening. We are thinking of heading to mine over in Zermatt (Täsch) for the weekend as there is more higher stuff.
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| JohnMo wrote: |
| franga wrote: |
Are you still out @JohnMo?
How are the pistes holding up? |
Still out in Valais. But I am round the corner at a mate's at Nendaz (part of 4 valleys with Verbier). The conditions in the two places tend to be fairly comparable. Superb piste conditions up high. And the famous Tortin itinerary run was in excellent condition this afternoon. However get below about 2000m and it turns into a slush fest. We foolishly skied down to 1500m. One of our mates is not that good a skier. He does snowplough turns. Doing snowplough turns in slush is not recommended. He flipped and has smashed his shoulder. He is now on a flight back to U.K. tomorrow. We are anaesthetising him with alcohol this evening. We are thinking of heading to mine over in Zermatt (Täsch) for the weekend as there is more higher stuff. |
Thanks very much.
Hope your mate recovers fast - not what you need on a ski holiday.
We are back next Wednesday for 4 days - looking forward to it even though the FL looks on the high side.
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I'm out in cervinia next week. Gonna tuck my missis up in ski school in the morning and want to get some privates and some freeriding with an instructor, does anyone know anyone decent out there?
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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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Did yesterday's rain cause a lot of damage further down? Forecast for next week a bit too volatile at the moment for my liking - keeps chopping and changing but 2 common themes remain : high FLs and wind (aaargh)
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By Thursday we were skiing a lot of soft stuff in the Valais 4 valleys so we thought we’d pop round to my place to do Zermatt on Friday as Zermatt is generally that bit higher. Great choice. We stuck to Klein Matterhorn and Schwarzsee (i.e. Higher and more North facing). They were in really good condition. The itineraries and off piste were too worn out and crusty unless you found mogul fields (which we did). By mid morning and a bit of softening up they were wonderful. However the whole day we stayed above 2000m and any minor venture lower made us realise that was the right choice.
Yesterday back in the 4 valleys we watched the rugby at 1500m with one eye on the torrential rain. So depressing (rain and rugby). However this morning we went high and there was wonderful fresh snow so I would think high Zermatt would be the same. I popped back round to my place in Täsch to drop my gear off before heading to Geneva airport (where I am now). The rain had decimated what snow there was in Täsch (also at 1500m) but that wouldn't dent my optimism about high conditions.
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FAQ
