 Poster: A snowHead
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Light snow on the glaciers the last two nights.
Nordstau this weekend could bring upto 1m of snow in 72 hours according to wePowder...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Stubai was lovely today probably 40 cm of fresh and a few sunny spells made it an unexpected joy
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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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At least 20cms of snow in my garden (700m) since last night, and it's still going strong. The northern alps should be very good for the next few days.
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Not so much here in Fieberbrunn, only about 1 cm overnight but still snowing (wettish) moderately.
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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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Snow down to below 600m, all the mountains are caked in white, and pretty much all resorts should be skiable (if not open) atm. Had a great morning at Obergurgl with my parents yesterday, 30-40cm of pow, but awful visibility high up. Some of the lower pistes through the trees were closed (though 'not opened yet' rather than actively closed) were really really nice. By the sounds of it Stubai had a little more snow, 40-50cm, but then you can't stop at the Oetztaler Aquadome on the way back from Stubai 
Sunny today, would be some great ski touring conditions if I had time.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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More light snow now; will hopefully get something fun done tomorrow.
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It was snowing hard in Woergl on Tuesday night, so I went for a ski tour in Westendorf yesterday. Realised when I arrived that I'd forgotten my skins, didn't have time to head back to a glacier, so just booted up instead. 800 (soft snow) vertical metres before I ran out of time, with nearly 10kg of ski and binding on my backpack... There's plenty of snow up there though, much more than this time last year. 20cms on the lower slopes, 40cms higher up, most really good quality pow. Didn't find a single shark. They do have the snow cannons running though, which have created a hideous, hard crust over everything they're pointed at. Once again had to gopro set at a dodgy angle, but I salvaged two shots:
Light was fantastic!
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First picture is ace a bit of tilt-shift esque something happening there.
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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, no idea what that is? 
Another great day today, ski toured up into the Kalkkoegel (by Axamer Lizum). Here's a photo from last season; I went for the obvious couloir today (though there're loads more):
Day started off cold, but with glorious sun. Annoyingly the clouds then closed in and the light went a bit flat. Hopefully that's the start of the snow we're supposed to get tomorrow though.
I only managed to get 3/4 of the way up the couloir (reasonably long approach as the lifts don't open until tomorrow) before I had to head back to IBK to meet my gf. There'd been plenty of uphill traffic in the area, but still lots of room between tracks. Snow was ace; 20cms of really light pow on top of 20cms of older denser pow.
I'm really starting to love my new 193 4FRNT EHP's in these conditions. They're basically flat camber, with a tiny bit of tip rocker, even less tail rocker, and barely any sidecut; not the floatiest or surfiest ski, but they're just sooooo fast in powder! There's no resistance, no drag, no friction; like a hot knife through butter. Throw them sideways and they just carry on sliding at full speed, until you put an edge in. Awesome fun! Surprisingly nice to tour with too (considering they weigh 2.3kg or something each, and are mounted with barons which weigh even more); with the straight shape the tip is only about as wide as a 'normal' ski, so they fit in the skin track easily.
Did get a bit carried away at one point though. Not sure if I hit a shark, dove a tip, or whatever, but I had a pretty big tumble at full speed. Everything was fine, jsut got snow everywhere; obviously happened the one time I thought "no, screw it, no need to get my shell out the bag" before skiing down.
Some photos:
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5cm of new snow on the car when I left work this morning, carried on until late Morning so maybe 10cm total; 15-20 up the mountain? Will have to wait 'til tomorrow to find out!
Axamer Lizum, Kuhtai and Patcherkofel are now open.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Skied at Axamer Lizum this morning, second day the lifts were open. Probably a little over half of them are running atm, servicing most pistes.
My pre-season fitness/eating regime must have been more effective than I'd thought, as I seem to have lost enough fat to need to actually think about layering now  (not that I was carrying much to begin with, maybe I need to up the potato ratio again lol). Only -10ºC, but I felt pretty cold.
Pistes were pretty hardpacked and not all that pleasant; busy with people skiing too fast on new race skis (busiest I've ever seen it). At least three people were carted off the mountain with injuries by lunchtime. My EHP's were definitely not the right tool for the job. They hold an edge fine (better than my beat up Bibbys anyway), but they don't really give much back skiing slowly on hard snow. Guess a 41m radius will do that...
There was still some pretty nice powder to be found just off the sides of the pistes, though there were plenty of sharks lurking in wait. Got the first real gouge out of the EHP's bases, but at least the subsequent bail gave my friends something to laugh about. They stayed on the pistes though, so I think I got the best of it. Photos below...
Nice view over Innsbruck, Nordkette standing proud above the city:
Some decent action to be had, but watch out for rocks...
Birgitzkoepfel/Nockspitze side looking really good. Lift isn't open yet, but several people had skinned up, and by the looks of it enjoyed nice powder turns on the way down:
Kalkkoegel looking lovely as always. The centre right couloir is the one I skied last Thursday. These mountains and the little hidden valley are such a playground: holds snow really well, perfect steep freeride terrain, enough rock around to provide visibility no matter how bad the weather:
Can't really complain too much at the leftovers:
Also got stuck on a broken chairlift for about 40 mins. Laphroaig saved the day; Prost!
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Nordkette opened some lifts today too, though the upper couloirs remain closed.
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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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And seemingly *touchwood* there might be quite a lot of snow coming next weekend...
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You know it makes sense.
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clarky999, You're a lucky man Matt, can't believe snow is so good so early.......looking like the start of another great season.
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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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looks great, 40 minutes on a chairlift, no wonder you were freezing!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Urrgh, am currently watching snow fall and then get washed away by rain... I hate you! 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Markymark29, meh, come out and play!
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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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So, having seen Menno's photos I decided to try Stubai again today. Unfortunately there'd been quite a bit of wind, and 90% of stuff offpiste was pretty messed up but it. On the plus side there was very little evidence of surface hoar formation (I'd been quite concerned about this given thin snowpack and v cold, clear weather). Also very very quiet, no sign of the crowds that were normal for the last couple of months.
Pistes were pretty hardpacked, and either unpleasantly wind-scoured or with nice wind-blown snow.
I'd hoped to check out a couloir on the Fernau side that I've had my eye on for a while, but alas it's not filled in enough yet (especially as the run-out goes straight over a heavily crevassed rollover!). Plan B involved another more straightforward/less interesting skin on the same side of the glacier, which being fairly wind protected still held some nice consolidated powder. Unfortunately as I started the traverse over to the area to start skinning a guided group started bootpacking up, so I missed out on total fresh tracks. Still nice snow though, with some fairly techy terrain further down the run to the Gamsgarten middle station.
Photos:
Meanwhile my gf went for a walk up Nordkette (bizarrely without skis) after finishing uni, and took a couple of nice photos.
Wintery woods:
And wintery city:
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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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Light snow atm. Freezing level went up a bit overnight; was raining here at 700m. Pretty windy atm too.
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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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Don't think we had any meaningful snowfall, but I was at work today so don't know what it was like higher up. Definitely a bit warmer though, +3ºC at 700m when I get home around 9pm. Brisk winds too.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Is it possible to post pics to here from an iPhone? Can anyone help me unravel this great mystery?! Lol
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Humpfknick, you need to host them somewhere (Flickr, Facebook, the 'SnowHeads Media Zone,' etc) first, then copy the image address. Not sure if it's possible on a phone, on a computer right click on the image to get the adress then post that between the [img] [/img] tags.
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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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clarky999, aha, why thank you! So I'm not losing my mind- the phone thing was completely baffling me
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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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So time for a bit of an update...
After great October/November conditions, it hasn't really meaningfully snowed since. Due to a combination of being picky/spoiled about conditions and a lot of studying to do, I haven't really skied since early December - other than touring up Patscherkofel to camp for NYE then skiing down. Lost most of my photos from that night on my broken computer though.
However my gf has been skiing a fair bit recently, and has reported great piste conditions (grippy but not soft) at Obergurgl and Stubai. Probably due to the large amount of pre-season snow we had. She went for a ski tour recently where things also didn't look too bad... Her photos:
This past week has felt like spring; been able to sit in the garden with just a normal jumper on without getting cold.
However it now looks like winter is making a bit of a comeback; it's snowing at Stubai (according to webcams), and it's just started snowing in my garden - for the first time since November!
I'm off to Japan on Thursday so won't be skiing here until February now, but hopefully things pick up for any of you guys coming out on holiday soon!
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You know it makes sense.
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Stopped snowing now. About 8cms on my neighbours cars when I got home for work, so maybe 15-20 higher up. At least everything is white again now!
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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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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Snowed all day at Schlick yesterday, rained alls ay and night at the flat, which turned to snow overnight; Nordkette is gonna be ON today!!
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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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Also very surprised about how versatile my Down CD1s are turning out to be - at 135mm underfoot they're basically my go to ski for anything over 10cm of fresh snow. Only ski I've used since getting back to Europe, and never wished I was on anything else. Not what I expected...
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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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Well, there was a little bit of snow last week, and some places got more than others. Obergurgl got about 50cms... Annoyingy through one thing and another (work and a pulled muscle in my back) I didn't get to ski it.
Spring has well and truly sprung now; it's very warm and sunny. Nordkette is pretty much over for the season now, unless April turns very snowy. Snow up there is just ruined, and melting quickly.
Had a good day at Stubai yesterday though, nice soft (but not yet slushy) pistes, and some nice spring snow in places. We also managed to scavenge a few of the remaining powder stashes, but nothing too exciting:
https://vimeo.com/88565903
Off to the Dolomites for a week with my family today; when I get back touring season should be in full swing 
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My mate Bernie's edit from yesterday in Ischgl; well worth a watch! A lot of work went into making it (too much for me, so I'll stick to unintrusive POV ), but the footage turned out really well!
Patience... Rewards Will Follow! from Sqikunst https://vimeo.com/89881383
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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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That does indeed look very, very nice. Thanks for posting.
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FAQ
Had a really great morning hitting some of my secret stashes. Not as much choice as past years due to the low tide, but coverage off-piste is already quite a lot better than when I got back from Japan 10 days ago.
