 Poster: A snowHead
|
|
Thanks everyone, interesting debate. I'm out for Easter so interested in how the snowpack develops after last years write off at Easter due to massive purges down to bare earth just before we arrived.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Rain, rain rain. How they managed with outdoor partying last night I have no idea.
Anyway, I reckon we skied every almost every open piste in St Anton today. We went up Galzig this morning at 9am, in anattempt to rise above the rain - freezing leve was about 1800m ish and found the pistes were largely closed - still hung over from last night? A particularly charming trick which caught out many was that only the top half of red 6 was open, and you were forced to complete the black 2 - most bizarre, and cue much tutting from skiers. Higher the snow was quite nice in a soft-spring snow sort of way, but none of the powder form the previous days. I'd guess that rain had fallen all the way up to 2000m - there is scarcely a spot of snow left on the trees anywhere (which yesterday were white). Lower down (the rain stopped so we went to the bottom of Galzig and up Gampen) the snow was horrid. Lots of big cracks and evidence of some small slides just above St Anton.
After lunch we went up Rendl and the sun came out. Absolutely lovely up there. Knee deep powder at the edges of the piste (even on piste) at the top of the 6-man chair and on piste the snow was lovely and soft. None left for tomorrow though.
With all that water in the snow, and clear skies tonight (though there's a bit of low cloud about), I'd guess it'll be pretty icy tomorrow. Assuming it freezes down to village level then the pavements will be absolutely lethal. Hope they might open up some of the upper slopes.
A couple of questions for the locals, please.
1. These ski routes. Are they to be regarded as serious off piste, to be touched only with transceivers?
2. How to get to Sonnenkopf from St Anton? I've been told it's not possible, bt that seems unlikely.
3. I believe (from here) there are two ways to get to Lech from St Anton, either the free ski bus or the Postbus. How can you tell which is which (as they're all run by Postbus) and do you happen to know the bus numbers. Again, nobody seems to know.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
stanton, sensible words.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
James asked:
"1. These ski routes. Are they to be regarded as serious off piste, to be touched only with transceivers? "
At least on the Lech-Zurs side, most routes are pretty well tracked up and some even get mowed flat (such as a path down the Madloch-Zug part of the White Ring). If you are not familiar with a route, stay near the signposts with the diamond markers. A big difference is that pistes have the circle markers at both edges of the piste, often there is just one line of route markers which mark the center of the route. If you haven't been down many routes before, don't pick a foggy day to have your first go at it.
"3. I believe (from here) there are two ways to get to Lech from St Anton, either the free ski bus or the Postbus. How can you tell which is which (as they're all run by Postbus) and do you happen to know the bus numbers. Again, nobody seems to know."
Unless the paint scheme has changed from last year, the non-free Postbus is yellow and (at least on the Lech side) the free bus is blue. At the St. Anton end, you need to catch the blue bus at the base of the Valfagehrbahn lift the Alpe Rauz location which is where the road up from the west splits to go to either Lech or St. Anton.
You can get the 4 euro or so Postbus at the Galzigbahn base area bus terminal in St. Anton and it stops in St. Christph along the way.
Bonus points question: What's the quickest ski lift/piste path to get from the Galzigbahn base to the Valfagehrbahn base?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
randyw, B------, what a question! Given no queues and clear weather, I'll go for Galzigbahn, down 5 to Osthangbahn, down to Arlenmahderbahn, down past Ulmer Hutte on 17 to Rauz. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Hmm - lots of questions.
waynos, you are completely right that the ground temp is around zero, but many places is probaly +0,5, which means melting... -> water running below the snow cover and above the ground resulting in less friction between the snow and the bed surface, try to put a magazine on a table and tilt the table, doesn't take much before the magazine slides of the table, now try to put a pice clothes on the table and do the same thing, you can tilt the table more before it slides of, because there is more friction between the two subjects.
Regarding temp gradient, that has to do with how fast/slow the metamorphism or also know as the settelment of the snow happens and does not necessarily to do with the stability of the snowpack.
It started snowing on a warm ground on the 6. of December, nothing really to do with the warm Autumn, if it had started with cold temperatures just a few days earlier, we would not have these problems.
See here for a description of the different avalanche levels http://www.skiadventure.eu/2012/the-avalanche-danger-levels-an-oververview/
stanton, It's actually very interessting, but if we just look at all registred avalanches, which includes avalanches with: casualties, full burried, partial burried and released but nobody in the avalanche, then there are more releases at a level 2 than 3, but they are lying pretty close together, there are all sorts of statistics which are lying outside of this forum.
kitenski, This season Easter is much earlier, but it's way to early to predict anything about it right now, it all comes down to the temperature development during the days and night at Easter and the cloud cover as well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
james, To answer your questions:
1)
A ski route is:
- Not groomed (sometimes it's getting groomed, but not by definition)
- Not patrolled
- Obstacles are not marked
- Avalanche controlled 5 meter to either side of the marker
So if you're planning on skiing further away from the marker, then carry a transeiver for your own safety, because you have no control over what other people above you are doing.
2)
To get to Sonnenkopf, you can either:
a) Ski down to Stuben and catch the free skibus, stopping outside the Hotel Post on the main road.
b) Take the off-piste route (with the appropiate safety equipment and route finding knowledge) down to Langen either over Maroi or past the Kaltenberg Hut. And then take a Taxi the rest of the way.
c) Take a taxi from where ever you want.
3)
To get to Lech:
a) Take the Post Bus from either St. Anton, St. Christoph or Alpe Rauz (thats the yellow bus and you have to pay like any other bus in the world)
b) Take the free shuttel bus from Alpe Rauz, thats the blue one. This one goes every 20 minutes, it can be very crowed in the mornings and afternoons.
c) Take a taxi from St. Anton, St. Christoph or Alpe Rauz
d) Ski down to Zürs over Valluga, read my article here http://www.skiadventure.eu/2011/try-valluga/ and then either take the lift up to Madloch and ski down to Zug or take one of the busses or a taxi.
randyw, The quickest way to get to the base of the Valfagehrbahn is:
1) Ski from the top of the Galzig gondola with the red piste no. 6 to the Tanzboden t-bar.
2) From the top of the t-bar then you exit to the right and take the black no. 10, here you can either ski to the Schindlergratbahn take that to the top and continue with the red no. 14 and blue no. 17 all the way down to Alpe Rauz, or instead of taking the Schindlergratbahn then from the black 10 you continue down the blue no. 11 to the Arlenmähderbahn up with that and then the bottom part of the red no. 14 and then blue no. 17.
He're is the link to the interactive ski map http://ski.intermaps.com/skiarlberg/skimap.asp?map=ost&startdata=lifte&lang=de
I preferre to take a taxi from Alpe Rauz, especially if we are a bigger group, much faster and not that expensive.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
Folks
Its raining again this afternoon/evening from around 1800M down . Unbrella's mandatory
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
Thanks for comments.
Third day, third type of snow. Hard - beautifully - groomed pistes.
Spent the day in Lech; much of the morning in the empty slopes above Zug. Best pistes are the "routes" as there's absolutely nobody on them... and they're beautifully pisted.
Snow started about 2pm, by the time we left Zurs there was a couple of inches of powder. Needless to say, in St Anton village it's falling as rain as usual.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Just back home, fairly tired after a very hectic week. Some amazing powder days, never before have I had so much snow over several days, it never stopped. Finally it cleared up yesterday afternoon and had a fab finale on Rendl. Will post pics and video later.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| torbs wrote: |
| kitenski, This season Easter is much earlier, but it's way to early to predict anything about it right now, it all comes down to the temperature development during the days and night at Easter and the cloud cover as well. |
I think you missed my point, it was more by understanding how the snowpack develops and changes over the season so that when I come out in Easter I am better informed, rather than predicting Easter conditions!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
kitenski, piece today on the Lawinenwarndienst Tirol http://lawinenwarndienst.blogspot.com/2012/01/rascher-gefahrenanstieg-mit-einem_02.html which mentions full depth slides are likely to be a problem all season.
"Ein Problem, welches uns noch den ganzen Winter begleiten wird, sind die Gleitschneelawinen."
Of course full depth purges are pretty much a fixture of spring anyway. They were accelerated last season because of the extreme warmth we had last spring.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
nozawaonsen, yes last season was pretty eye opening, faces we had skied in Stuben the year before were almost bare following the purges, so we didn't really go far off piste, despite some very nice new snow 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
kitenski, Sorry if I didn't make it clear enough, first of all to really explain this in depth will go beyond this forum, here I suggest reading an awalanche book and participating in awalanche courses.
How the snowpack develops depends entirely about, the weather and the the terrain.
What happend last Easter was very warm temperatures over a long period with a shallow snow cover, which resulted in massive avalanches coming down where we had never seen them before.
Also don't forget to read about what causes the wet slides to come down, same as with the cracks in the snow, in my earlier post.
So - follow the local weather, read the avalanche bulletins, not just when you are going skiing, but throughout the entire winter, that will make you a bit more informed.
Hope this makes it a bit more clear, but it's a very complex matter 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
The weather today here in the St. Anton will be sunny, starting cold but getting warmer during the day.
Last night we had about 15-20cm of fresh snow.
More snow is expected more or less every day of the week, but the heavy snowfall will be Thursday to Friday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
and just to make it Clear. St Anton is not Avalanche Death Valley.....They do there very best to control the area protect the town & highways with extensive Gazex system, line wire detornators, etc.
Put inperspective there are around 1 Million visitors a season so the incidents are very few. The Rescue services have to deal a lot with other mother nature incidents likes Heart Attacks, etc.
Skiing is safe here if you stay inbounds & obey the rules. Skiing Race Speed Fast on Public Pistes is Dangerous & not Clever. In some cases you can have your lift pass cancelled end up in the Court House and face very large fines..
Off Piste, NEVER Ski alone & make sure someone knows where your going. Take torbs, advice above.
Helicopter Rescue is NOT CHEAP 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Thursday night will bbe a severe Storm , high winds.you name it !
Official 68cm new snow expected in St Anton (town) by January 5th. That will be a lot more on the Hill
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
stanton, is the camera mounted on the end of your skipole in those vids? Amazing skiing btw!! Thanks for sharing with us mortals who dream of being able to ski like that!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| stanton wrote: |
| and just to make it Clear. St Anton is not Avalanche Death Valley.....They do there very best to control the area protect the town & highways with extensive Gazex system, line wire detornators, : |
On Sunday afternoon a helicopter was buzzing around Valluga, you could here lots of explosions, were they dropping dynamite into danger areas?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
Some amazing powder days, never before have I had so much snow over several days, it never stopped
|
When we stayed in Stuben in March 2009, it started snowing on Wednesday and was still snowing on Saturday when we left. St Anton and even Lech were not getting as much as Stuben. Roll on March when I'm out there with the boys
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
| Peter Ross wrote: |
| stanton wrote: |
| and just to make it Clear. St Anton is not Avalanche Death Valley.....They do there very best to control the area protect the town & highways with extensive Gazex system, line wire detornators, : |
On Sunday afternoon a helicopter was buzzing around Valluga, you could here lots of explosions, were they dropping dynamite into danger areas? |
Quite possibly... but it would likely be a TNT (Pentolite) charge rather than dynamite, to be extremely geeky. Dynamite would remove too much of the actual mountain I think.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gorgeous blue skies, 4-8 inches of powder, and every skier for 200 miles around joining the fun. All the trees in St Anton village are white again after the rain.
Don't think there's a square inch of unskied powder left, the locals were not paying much attention to Torbs's advice!
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
| Peter Ross wrote: |
On Sunday afternoon a helicopter was buzzing around Valluga, you could here lots of explosions, were they dropping dynamite into danger areas? |
I am not sure what chemical explosive mix they use ( i doubt TNT). For sure any undetonated device you may find out there dont pick it up
The Storm coming on Thursday is going to be very severe , probably going to impact on all kind of travel choices in & out of the area (St Anton, Lech,Zurs) on Friday,Saturday.
I expect very limited lift operations on Friday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
sah, 1999 snow was awesome. I was there when they shut the road at the Shell station by snow mound across the road for a few days to stop in/ outs. It snowed continually for 5 days, but when it stopped it was unbelievable, we were there for 2 weeks, best skiing ever!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
| sah wrote: |
| stanton, OK, maybe slightly off topic, but from my geeky avalanche knowledge (reading up in preparation for an upcoming AIARE course ) the stuff the experts talk about is called Pentolite, and from my entirely Wikipedia based research that's based on TNT, as opposed to dynamite |
I have no idea but im pretty sure without the Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung (UVP) consent only approved methods are permitted
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Folks
07:00 it was raining in town but by 08:00 it had changed to Snow & it is coming down at quite a rate as i send this
This morning 09:00 the west side lifts (Valfagehrbahn,Arlenmähderbahn) and Upper lifts (Schindler,Valluga) are closed.
The last few dumps were fantastic. This one in progress which is just getting going will be on & off today & become severe tomorrow,tomorrow night is being talked up a lot by the locals..
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
Flying out to Zurich on Sunday, should hopefully arrive in resort about 16.00 assuming no delays on the roads, am using the Arlberg Express.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Has anyone got pictures of current conditions?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
Has anyone got pictures of current conditions?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Has anyone got pictures of current conditions?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Sorry, not sure how that happened.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peter Ross, thanks very much. I shall be there on 29th Jan, and really needed a quick fix.
My first time in St Anton. 15 of us coming to Chalet Ejsfell. Many of my friends have been several times before and tell me that is awesome. So massively looking forward to it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
Eeeeee I can't wait to get there on Sunday. First ski day will be Monday 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here's an apres ski photo from the Krazy Kangaroo to get you more excited!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
