Poster: A snowHead
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Cant wait to get there on Sat 23rd looks 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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today started off nice and clear and sunny as Andytb said, but by the time we'd got to 2,600m it had largely clouded over. Within a short space of time thereafter the light became very flat. However the snow was very nice and everything was very pisted (shame when you're looking for bumps!) We skied Toura and Lac Noir and did a lot of delicate exercises today as everyone was tired after yesterday. Grand Nord was exceptionally good too.
I returned to town via the Valentin which had 2 huge humps of frozen snow at the top where the big cannons had evidently malfunctioned during the night, but once clear of that (nasty) it was very pleasant.
Pic is of view from the Toura looking to the right of ADH, with dramatic skies and sun splodges.
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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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Once the snow started after lunch boy did it close in fast!!! We went to the Fee restaurant for lunch - very nice - then did the red run which was lovely packed snow with a fresh cm on top. Bailed to Cretes because the light at Fee was flatter than eric and got some good-ish conditions to practice some exercises. Magic hat also managed to get a little video footage to end the day.
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Beautiful morning this morning. I don't know how much fresh is higher up, but hopefully a good 10-15cms. Not much down here though.
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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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Got back late last night after four brilliant days in L2A.
Not a great deal to add to easiski et al's observations - suffice to say those heading out soon will have quite a bit to go at.
Had a couple of afternoons off-piste entertainment with easiski's group who were good company and really pushing themselves to do new and crazy things.
Obviously its going to be tiring having two hours of intensive tuition in the morning before going off for an afternoon of high jinx in more deep snow, but nonetheless we covered a lot of terrain.
Sarah said she had a skills epiphany shortly after lunch on Tuesday, and she came with me all over the mountain til the lifts finished. We skied some challenging stuff, culminating with a great descent in loose, deep snow from behind the Vallons chairlift, round the Venosc side of the plantation and across the bottom of Diable.
Unfortunately, the Head Monsters easiski very kindly gave me a few years ago have now reached retirement age - they are now very soft and flappy and have a penchant for submarining in deep snow unless you lean right back and steer through your heels, which makes for embarrassing incidents when you don't. God alone knows what I look like doing that, but never mind.
Nonetheless, they've been great and I will reward their loyal performance by sparing them the dustbin for now, and they can go out to grass as rock hoppers.
Having been generously loaned a pair of K2 Apaches by Florence at Sport Emotion for the day, I have seen the future, and it's quite exciting!
Enjoy the rest of your week andytb, Selina and Sarah - good to meet you and thanks for giving me the opportunity to show you more of the mountain. It was good fun.
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paulmck, thanks for taking them out - they did enjoy it and showed me where you took them off Gours.
Today was lovely again, very sunny all day, warm in the sunshine and out of the wind. Unfortunately the wind was quite nasty on the glacier, but as you can see from the photo, that's all that was nasty! The lines were excellent for short radius turning, and after a nice warm up the top of Gours (hidden valley) was most excellent too. One of them - I'm not saying who, did have an issue at Zotov's leap, but otherwise good skiing was done by everyone.
We're going to LG tomorrow, more reports then.
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Have fun in LG.........
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easiski, Looks great.......wish I was going there tomorrow......Whooooooaaaa......I am!!!
Did you get much fresh up higher?
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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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easiski, that's ok; it was fun!
Did you get back from the garage alright on Tuesday?
RetroBod, it was snowing like the clappers yesterday afternoon, and rained all the way to Lyon, so I would imagine you are going to have some good stuff to play in!
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RetroBod, No. I don't think much fell, and then what did was either pisted in or blown off.
alexchapman, thanks
paulmck, Yes - nice man (very bad driver) who owns chalets in Montgenevre was going to Grenoble, but took me all the way to LDA.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Well so excited now 1 more sleep till we depart from Manchester tomorrow morning, snow conditions look good that coupled with being able to watch the semi final of the League cup over there are going to make this a great holiday.
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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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Off to La Grave this morning. Beautiful weather but certainly cold. Even in LG village at around 14.00 it was still -2degs. The guys were excited and aprehensive, and we got there successfully and up the mountain to a nice hot chocolate at what used to be the Haut dessus, but now seems to be called the Chalet 3200. I did see the old owner though, which was nice. I also saw Arno - what a surprise that was!!
The snow was very nice all the way down, although there were some icy patches near the bottom, and skiing through the huge ice boulders presumably made by that avalanche on U-Tube was interesting. I was pleased I'd taken the Fischers rather than the Zags though.
I'm a bit late now so here are two pix - one of the higher glaciers and seracs, and one of the icicle fall that was part of our view for our picnic stop.
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easiski, wow I miss that place (although here is pretty good too!), sounds like a nice day out as days at LG often are.
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You know it makes sense.
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All the Stanchions for the Lauze tbar were back up today. Going by the disturbed snow it looks like they have moved four in total. It wasn't possible to tell from a distance if they have rewired it yet. On piste conditions were great today, had a couple of fun runs down Valentin which snow mound notwithstanding was a hoot and a confidence builder. I'm very disappointed to be leaving - but everyone should sneak in some Saturday skiing! It was unbelievably quiet today on all areas of the mountain.
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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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Nice, easkiski, do you think that de height of snow in LG is average, or is a good year?? I heard some people speaking about lots of snow for a january
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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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Got back late yesterday (after a mammoth journey from hell) from my week in Les 2 Alpes - conditions and weather were great. There were no big dumps while we were there but the pistes were in very good condition and there was nice stuff off piste too.
Lucky with the weather too - one slightly dodgy day, the rest were clear blue skies. Fantastic.
Very jealous of anybody heading out there.
easiski, Once again, thank you for a great week. My confidence has improved ten fold, I think I am a wiser, more sensible skier (rather than just chucking myself blindly down anything) and my ability and technique has improved. I wanted to get an intro to learning off-piste stuff, which i definitely got, but I also improved (and feel much better about) my on-piste skiing. Thank You.
andytb, Glad you enjoyed your sneaky Saturday ski. We were in flight delay hell during a 12 hour trip home and the thought of you having your extra day on the slopes was making us very jealous. Shame about the GPS tracking!
maverick177uk, you'll have a fantastic time and conditions should, hopefully, be excellent.
paulmck, Lovely to meet you! Thanks for the fantastic afternoon tour of some of your off piste routes - it was awesome. I loved every minute of it - even my two spectacular falls into the soft stuff!
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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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I thought I'd put up the main events for next summer while I was looking at them:
Les 2 Alpes summer 2010 events:
From june 17th to 20th = Mondial du VTT Free Raid Classic VTT Mag
July 4th = Les 2 Alpes Raidlight Trail with Maratour des Glaciers (long loop) and Trail du Chibani (short loop)
From july 16th to 18th = Mountain of Hell
From july 24th to 30th = Défi de l'Oisans
August 1st = Fête des Foins
August 21st & 22nd = Marco Pantani Memorial Cycling
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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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snowing lightly and looking thoroughly miserable this morning
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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easiski, Not as miserable as Grimsby!!!!
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It was snowing off and on this morning and only medium cold. Bits of blue sky and sun popped in and out, and eventually it cheered up. I was at home in the afternoon though and the Venosc mist came up, so I don't know what it was like above the temperature inversion!
Moody pic of nursery slope and mountains beyond.
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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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easiski, nice to see you on Friday. hope your group enjoyed pretty ideal conditions. we did a quick run down the Chancel side to P1. didn't bother with the lake couloirs - Patou looked OK but Banane was well skied. Followed up with a few variations down to P2. Some quite nice snow around. And finished off with Triffide 1 which was in great nick.
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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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today started off really nice. It was cold but clear, however the Venosc mist was hovvering around the nursery slopes most of the morning. Later I went up to the glacier to ski with PaulS and friends and it was really cold up there. -10degs in the afternoon and some brisk northerly wind.
The snow on the Dome was fabulous, and we went onto the bottom of the Echines which was really out of this world. firm (although tracked) with a lovely 2" of fresh snow from yesterday on top - so silky.
The whole way down was really nice snow including a quick trip down the top of Posettes, which was way better than it looked. Valentin was firm but not too icy - only spoilt by both skiers and snowboarders sideslipping down it in numbers.
Pic from the top of the Dome looking onto a sea of cloud.
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Great photo!
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You know it makes sense.
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Easiski, I recognise that view..... thanks for a great day, and with any luck we can get back over before the end of the season. The road back here over the was in a bit of a blizzard, so my local resorts will have to tested for the quality of the snow. Oh well, someone has to do it.
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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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today has been absolutely gorgeous, and although I didn't go above the village the snow was super all over, and the run down to the Petite Aiguille through the chalets was in really good nick. the last part of the Chemin wasn't any worse than usual, and a good time was had by all.
As I write my apartment is back on the edge of the Venosc mist, but it's very light and moving around. Pic from the top of the Petite Aiguille chairlift which is on the last hairpin of the chemin.
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Poster: A snowHead
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What a view! I was in L2A over Xmas, and thanks to the appalling weather, didn't see much blue sky like that! But, I've booked to come back in March, so fingers crossed for good weather then!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We were in L2A over Christmas and the high winds were a big problem as the lifts couldn't function, just wondered if this has been more of a problem this year over previous seasons??
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Richard E, shame, I'll be there the week before 13th-20th. Never mind!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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MagSeven, there are also a group of Snowheads in town your week too!
Bartezki, We do suffer from wind here, but not normally enough to turn off the main lifts as much as Xmas week. The two holiday weeks were truly aweful. 300 days average of sunshine per year in Les Oisans! Unfortunately skiers tend to like above ground lifts, so we all get more and more of them. When I first came here there were lots more pomas, including going up the face!
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It was quite pleasant today inthe town, but there was a fair bit of wind even on the Cretes, although it was basically just fresh there. I imagine it was really nasty at altitude, although the 2nd leg of the Jandri Express was working. The snow was good for the most part, with one or two harder patches on the last bit of the Demoiselles. Basically a sunny day, but with more cloud than yesterday.
Pix of the view over towards ADH from the Cretes, and then of the Face looking across from the 1st hairpin on the Demoiselles.
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Today started off bright and sunny, but by 10.30 it had clouded right over and the light had gone pretty flat. From time to time the viz improved a little as the sun got closer to breaking through, but it never quite did. It started spitting with snow at altitude and has been snowing down here for about an hour now. We'll see how much falls for tomorrow. Hopefully not enough to cause trouble for the changeover.
Very grey pic of the Grande Pente. The snow was fine, but it's pretty bumpy so caution was called for.
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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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easiski Can't imagine going up to the top on a poma, must have been a right thigh burner, it was bad enough doing the lutins lift
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Bartezki, there was a poma where the Petite Aiguille is but it went a bit higher than the chairlift does, and another one where the Belle Etoile is now taking us up to the Cretes. The Grand Cretes was a poma from the same starting point to the top of the steeper part, with a chirlift from the European ski school hut to the top of the Thuit chiar (Sea). On the Pied Moutet side there were 3 pomas that went up to the ridge including one up the Fioc I was always lifted clean off my feet by that one! the agreement was to take all 3 out when they built the Vallee Blanche chair.
It's snowing today, but not really dropping big amounts. Grey and horrid looking.
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