 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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hubblebubble, Thanks for the report, I'm off there next month so hopefully more snow by then.
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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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PhillipStanton, hubblebubble,yep that was us - great lot from Inverness back for their 2nd visit and threatening to come back next year!!!
Went up this morning - should have left it till the afternoon as got blown backwards up the Arare!! Got to the top before they shut the Express d'Interet - wasn't one of our best decisions - came back down and went home!!
Forecast is wet for tomorrow with the snow limit dropping all day with snow in villagle by evening. Ski hosting on Pleney in the morning so may see PhillipStanton, out there getting wet with the rest of us. I've got one of those lovely long macs (like the ESF wear) but in black - best purchase ever - no wet bum on the chairlifts.
Looks like Tuesday could be a powder day as they are forecasting cold and sunny!!!!
Next week is the really busy one with the Flemish and Dutch on hols as well as the Parisians - arrgggggggghhhh
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| snowandtrek wrote: |
| I've got one of those lovely long macs (like the ESF wear) but in black - best purchase ever - no wet bum on the chairlifts. |
You must send me the name of your supplier!
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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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Nothing to report today as we had a day off.
Well, I say off - if "off" includes servicing four pairs of skis; a three and a bit hour drive to Val d'Isere; three-odd hours in Val and a three-odd hour drive back 
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Well I'm back, what a week:
Arrived Saturday and was on Pleney by 2pm, a slight error in judgment of open lifts/pistes sent us on a whistlestop tour of the area in a valiant attempt to get back before we were stranded! Snow varied between full coverage and muddy grass!
Sunday: up to Avoriaz instantly noticed the snow was excellent although there were a couple of stones about, went over to Switzerland via Mossettes but put a massive gouge in my board returning to Linderet.
Monday was more of the same blasting about all over the place, what was interesting to note was there were almost no queues for lifts anywhere.
Tuesday the snow started went down to Linga in white out conditions, one of the blues on the return was interestinglly wind scoured ice for the first 50m!
Wednesday the snow carried on, got some great runs down in the fresh powder where it hadn't been pisted, can't even remeber where we were not that it was noticable anyway!
Thursday: see Wednesday except the wind was worse, good fun trying to scooch onto a run while the wind blew me in the opposite direction.
Friday: what a day, blue skies and tonnes of fresh powder everwhere, two mates did the wall twice in a row while we went down grand paradis which was closed but an instructor took a group down so we followed in thigh deep powder that was nowhere near tracked out, I imagine the run is now open as there was snow right the way down with the bottom man made. Almost came to grief on the snowcross down from mossettes when I missed the gap in the fence by about a foot and then kept sliding furthe down the red snowcross was much in the vein of the grand paradis powder and finished off the day with arete des intrets and coupe de Monde which were both in excellent condition.
Saturday: I had the board in for a service at Intersport and boy did it need the full works after that week. Ran up Pleney for an hour when I got it back for old times sake but the snow was pretty crusty.
Roll on Selva in 5 weeks
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Swirly,
"We followed in thigh deep powder that was nowhere near tracked out". I always find it amazing that one part of a ski area, such as the Grand Paradis, can have so much fresh snow whereas another just a couple of kms away, such as the Plain Dranse area, only had mid calf deep powder. Must be something to do with the high altitude of the Champery skiing. 
Glad you had a good week.
zzz
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The word of the day is attritional (is that a word?!??!).
I spent six hours today shadowing three different ski school groups - all confined to the Pleney area today whilst we made sure everyone was in the right group - mostly in heavy rain / snow / heavy rain / snow / heavy rain / snow (you get the message). Somehow around 10-15cm of snow managed to congeal into powder on the sides of the piste.
I had a cracking last run of the day down "the face" - the black under the top part of the Pleney. I nearly went up for another run - but decided to end with the good feelings.
3.6 degrees on the comedy weather station and absolutely chucking it down here - so should be dumping above 1400m as I write. Forecast is for the freezing level to drop down below the village tonight - I just wish it would get on with it!
I'm just off out to buy some of those ESF gloves...
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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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PhillipStanton would be interested to know what it is like at the top of Pleney. As you know we are headed for Le Viking on Saturday. Kids just loved those top Blues last year, just wondering what cover is like at 1550?
Know it is snowing tonight but can't wait for ritual webcam and GFS debriefing in the morning!
5 more sleeps............
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RetroSkier - cover at the top of Pleney is perfectly good, although some of the runs are suffering from rain damage. To be honest, given the weather on the forecasts, it's still a bit early to say (if we had clear weather forecast then I could be more definite).
Anyway, currently snowing. I know because it was a tad chilly tending the sausages on the BBQ!
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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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Aaaarrrrgggghhh! No update for >24 hours. You're spending too much time skiing and not enough telling us about it! 
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You know it makes sense.
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| doctor_eeyore wrote: |
| Aaaarrrrgggghhh! No update for >24 hours. You're spending too much time skiing and not enough telling us about it! |
Apologies for having a life! 
Yesterday it (mainly) snowed for the first half of the day.
I took the afternoon off shadowing ski school and did "the grand tour" of Morzine / Les Gets in about 3 hours - including Myrtilles (officially closed), Yeti, Melezes, Tetras, Creux, Arbis, (the imaginatively named) Piste J and the Stade...
...generally excellent snow all around. The highlights were: Cruex, which had beautiful, loose snow combined with soft bumps; Myrtilles (so good we did it thrice!). Low points were the bottom of Melezes (icy and patchy - but it seldom isn't) and the Stade (slushy bumps over ice).
Today, was yet another wet, horrendous day to spend six hours ski school shadowing. Again, Avoriaz should be great - and I'm hopefully going up tomorrow afternoon. Everything, though, is holding up - although the bottom of "the unnamed black" (below Piste J) was, errrrr...well... (It was still fun though.)
Snow expected overnight tonight down to 700m and then sunny tomorrow...
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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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PhillipStanton, So you mean pistes "M", "Y", "T", "other C", "A" and "S"?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Seriously will the Feohn wind do a lot of damage the 2 days it's blowing?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| David Murdoch wrote: |
| PhillipStanton, So you mean pistes "M", "Y", "T", "other C", "A" and "S"? |
Double word score?
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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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PhillipStanton, you've got to give up that course, it's raining again and it's all your fault. 
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RetroSkier, seriously, probably not as long as there is no precipitation.
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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.
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Like PhillipStanton, have spent most of this week on the Pleney side - guests kids had morning ski school so took them guiding at the same time - snow has ranged from excellent through to super sticky and then this morning well pisted but hard.
Weather forecast is for spring type weather for the next 3 days with high winds (foehn) at altitude. As long as we get those clear skies at night it the snow shopuld hold for next week. After that looks like a good drop in temperature for the rest of the week.
Pleney/Les Gets still needs 50cm more to be up to near normal levels for February. Top bits are fine but lower down is very patchy except B & D which are good.
Next week we will be skiing in Avoriaz and the Swiss side most days after the ski school in the morning on Pleney.
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| Quote: |
| using the polite British version of the "French" variant of queuing... |
That's when you tread on other people's skis, stab them with your poles, then say "i'm sorry"...
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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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Going to Morzine on the 24th any ideas on how busy it will be? According to the forecasts it should be snowing a small amount by Wed 20th but like most people looking at webcam's etc isn't the best thing to do before you go, what are the conditions like in Avoriaz and Morzine en ce moment, not that I am spending most fo my free time looking evrywhere for something uplifting in the way of news (joys of being freelance too much time on my hands)
Cheers
B
snowandtrek,
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I was largely confined to Pleney again today, so not much to report. It was very warm and things have been correspondingly spring-like. There are a few holes opening up on some of the subsidiary runs at the bottom of Pleney (not the main ones), but things are generally holding up well.
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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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Went up to Avoriaz for the first time in over a week and was pleasantly suprised - not too busy and the pistes were in good condition.
Lovely sunny weather and had lunch in town sitting outside in a t-shirt!! More like March than February but it's Friday and loads of new guests tomorrow so making the most of the quiet before our favourite day of the week!!!
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So the time has come.....1 sleep left. Weather looks great for some hard piste riding. Looking forward to my first visit to Avoriaz (actually staying in Morzine).
That brings me to a question I am sure you've been asked a lot this year but what would be the quickest / easiest way to get to avoriaz - Super Morzine or the other way (Pordains?). Where do the busses go from?
PhillipStanton - thanks for your detailed and informative snow reports I hope to be bringing good news back next week.
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You know it makes sense.
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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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Bags packed ETD 1hr.
Look out Morzine here we come 17 family and Friends of Retroskier.
Watch those lift queues soar!
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooah......................................
See you there!
(not quite sure what this has to do with snow reprots! WTH)
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Curtains wrote: |
| also the run into linga was very good when we were there a couple of weeks ago just watch the times for the lift closures to get back. |
I agree on both points - we nearly mis-judged the return last week and got the chair out of the Linga valley about 5 minutes before it shut. And we know the way. Whilst it's not difficult to get out of the Linga valley, it's easy to drop too low and need to take an extra chair.
RetroSkier - I'll do anything to avoid Prodains. Does that answer your question? 
Day off today - we're going up to the lake.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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PhillipStanton, The forecast looks warm at the bottom of Les Gets, a bit of a thaw?
Any idea what the local forecast is for the end of this week as we are out there in seven days
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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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chrisb - I'm afraid that the forecast isn't looking too good - bad enough for me not to look at it again for the next few days. 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Wish I didn't read your last post PhillipStanton, I'll finally be out in 4 days 
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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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Just to say that if anyone is after cheap skis, has a car and is around the Portes du Soleil, then Thonon is the place to go. I've just picked up a pair of Dynastar Contact 10s at 40% off.
Once you get to Thonon, follow the signs for Geneva, which will bring you onto a divided boulevard.
There are three places to look:
- Vieux Camper - which is on the left - just before you hit the big roundabout with the "winter scene" on it (don't worry, you really can't miss it!) - it looks like a camping shop, but has a very good selection of skis with some on offer and clothing at 30-50% off. If you buy anything in store you get a voucher for 20% of the purchase to spend on your next visit
- Intersport and Sport 2000 - both of which are on the big industrial estate about 1km after the same roundabout if you keep heading out of town (and past the "you've left Thonon" sign) - Intersport is on the left and visible from the road, whilst Sport 2000 is next to the (huge) Carrefour
Savings at Intersport and Sport 2000 vary and range from 10-50% off skis.
Carrefour also have a small range of childrens skis, with bindings, for 99€
Edit - inaccurate information on Vieux Camper offer, now corrected.
Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Sun 18-02-07 9:37; edited 1 time in total
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Got back in the early hours of this morning (Sunday)..
Rained in the early part of the week. Excellent back 3 days with good weather and reasonable conditions. Snow very very wet and sticky later in the day apart from at the top of the high lifts. Best runs early in the day lower down and away from the centres (where the beginners are) and then go higher later in the day..
Sorry, missed your PM PhillipStanton, will be out again in March so will try and arrange something for then
Videos and pics to follow.
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Got back last night from a long drive home. I have never seen so many car top boxes in my life. This was of course our first drive to a ski resort.
Must say a big thankyou to PhillipStanton, for the advise on carrying the extra gloves for the kids just whish i could have taken a spare pair for me!
Arrived Saturday so Sunday was the first day on the slopes The vis was not to good as it was snowing 2 hrs in and my daughter of 11 screams out in pain after a tumble over in linderetts. Fearing teh worst and a quick scramble up the slope she manages to ski out the rest of the day (6 hrs). Once i saw how swollen her knee was I took her to the Pharmecy near the Town Hall in Morzine. They recommended a Medical practice in Monderet (not sure of the spelling) next to the Office of Tourism. The people there could not have been more helpfull and I thouroughlly recommend them. They X rayed her knee advised a day of rest and try if she felt ok to ski the following afternoon. They phoned the Pharmacy and told them we would be along and what we required in the way of leg support for her (the Pharmacy stayed open late for us to get there) and when i didn't have enough cash just said to pop it in that afternoon. 195 euros well spent knowing that there wasn't any liggement damage. This was the best day to be off the slopes as it poured hard even in Avoriaz.
So we got to ski on the tuesday afternoon the best conditions of the holiday over at Les Gets.
Weds was sleet most of the day even up high and we got soaked.
Thur managed to get over to Switzerland as the pass was open and Friday skiing around Nyon and Les Gets in the hotest conditions I,ve ever known on the slopes. A friend saw the temp gauge on the plenny reading 25'C must have been in direct sun light but I know how hot it was as I skiied in just a tee shirt and thin fleece.
Great holiday but pistes wher getting a bit thin on fri afteernoon.
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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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Glad you had a good time bigtoe and very glad that your daughter is ok.
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Free-skiing and a bit of a late start today. We did broadly the same itinary as last Thursday, but this time we managed to get down to the bottom of Linga and took in "the comedy blue" (L'Itineraire on your piste maps) on the way back. Slopes are generally in very good condition and (to disagree with bigtoe a little) I thought that what we skied on was showing remarkably little signs of wear. Conditions are loose snow / slush over ice. Some great bumps skiing to be had.
I'm ski school shadowing again every day next week until 13:30 - so will be confined to Pleney in the mornings and hunting bumps in the afternoons.
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