What do you think are great / horrible conditions for your week ?

A snowHead

Taking this on from a thread in the weather outlook section, which made me think.....

Last week in Serre Chevalier we had snow pretty well every day, with the associated white out conditions, and thankfully not too much wind (which for me can make conditions atrocious) and bad viz and soft snow / powder and only one day of sunshine on Thursday.

Think I went up most days and skied in the trees, as is my passion, away from the piste scoring some great descents. The Thursday was quite depressing as it seemed everywhere off piste go tracked out very quickly.

But this is NOT really an off piste debate vs piste

From the weather thread....

A snowHead

Everyone knows the perfect conditions are a dump every night and sun during the day snowHead

More realistically, on an off-piste week with a guide I would rather have sow falling and associated cloudy/flat light conditions and go play in the trees than no fresh snowfalls at all.

Skiing on piste with friends then I probably would rather have sun since I wouldn't really be able to make the most of the conditions anyway, and most people hate flat light so I would struggle to get people out and about.

A total white out and blizzard is no fun for anyone though, and I've been in a few where I had no idea which way was up, down, or anything!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The only thing i consider bad conditions is rain.

lack of snow (ie none) is no conditions.

Everything else is just part of being in the mountains (maybe you could argue the rain on that one too but its just yuk imo)

I find heavy snow and flat light hard going and prefer bright cold days but dont consider them poor conditions, skiing in cloud is also hard, but then its usually transient until you get higher, or lower.

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Yep, I'm going with rain too.

Anything else is a degree of difficult, rain is just S*** it ruins the snow.
Generally speaking skiing whilst it is snowing is really quite enjoyable, the majority of punters seem to leave the slopes and head for a bar somewhere.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Just back from 9 days in Ski Amadé. Had lots of different snow conditions from hardpack to fresh snow to slush but in the main the weather was mild and sunny and very pleasant. Saturday was the holy grail of ski days, fresh snow overnight and a blue sky day although the fresh snow got mogulled very quickly. Yesterday it started snowing heavily again, snow conditions were lovely but it was chilly with difficult visibility. I prefer a clear sunny day with low wind, but in fairness on a skiing holiday I'll happily take what I get. Being able to enjoy skiing all conditions with good control is what it's about for me. I'm still not brilliant at slush, deep new snow or moguls, but it's all fun...

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Snowing is good, sunshine is good snowHead

Fog/flat light with no snow to compensate for it is bad Sad

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Probably rain again for me too.....

Just back from a week in Tignes, snow for arrival on Sunday nice on Monday and Tuesday and getting a little warm. Snow Wednesday night and then one of the best days skiing I've ever had, powder and glorious sunshine Cool

Snowed all day Friday and it seemed most of the night and was forecast to have some sunny spells on Sat so I expected another day of epic-ness. However it was cold, and windy. The sun did break through but the off piste was generally heavy going, wind affected and slabby. I decided I prefer skiing in snow and flat light vs a strong cold and bitter wind. As someone who's lucky to get 2-4 weeks max per season in I learned a long time just to take it as it comes during a weeks holiday.

I do like skiing in the spring though, slush and skiing in a t-shirt and enjoying an ice cold beer on a sun drenched balcony in the mountains is rather nice!

After all it is free

wind and rain - bad (especially when snow blows across the piste and you can't work out what's up or down)
snowfall with no wind - good
too much snow - bad (there is such a thing)

Blue sky, high pressure weather, perfect piste skiing - Anything else is just gash.

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You can't beat a fresh dump of overnight powder, but almost any conditions where snow is falling are good in my book. A bit of sunshine can be nice too, but I'll take fresh snow any day. Frozen pistes and complete white-outs are probably the worst conditions, but rain is pretty miserable too.

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As long as there's no rain or high wind i'm happy, although mega dumps during the early morning after pistes have been bashed is not good for me - it swiftly gets churned into bumps and my poor knees can't handle that all day!

For me:

Best - fresh snow! (sunshine will be the icing on the cake)

Worst - rain

Conditions I can tolerate if not preferred:

- whiteout: try to find some trees, failing that, piste marker

- wind: as long as the lifts are running, I can bundle up and do a few runs before ducking into a cafe to warm up, then repeat.

- cold: what is this thing called "cold"? ok, same as above (wind), bundle up and short outing.

- snowing or poor visibility/flat light: I actually handle that reasonably well, just have to ski a bit slower, so no big complain there

You know it makes sense.

I love skiing in the sun, which is why I usually book to ski in March. It's no guarantee, obviously, but longer, sunnier days do seem to be in better supply than earlier in the season.

Saying that, no amount of weather is going to keep me indoors if the lifts are open! Some other guests opted to stay in last January because it was snowing again, only for the clouds to clear and reveal the beautiful Dolomite scenery. In a large and fairly varied resort, you can often find an area with trees/better snow cover/shelter from the wind in order to make the best of what you've got that day.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Rain or absolutely no snow (including man made base only) = gash

Everything else is on the spectrum of good to excellent. Most reliable is probably warm temps sunny days on a deep deep base. sweet corn. Ironically the very conditions many people write off as slush
more fool them.

A snowHead

Rain and poor visibility will send me back to my bed these days, but I would probably go out if it was my only week of the season.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Snow great
Grass bad
Though I'm with Hells Bells on rain or rubbish visibility!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

abc, yes, we'll have had almost 6 weeks away by the end of the season, so a morning or two off is neither here nor there.

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fatbob, Ahhhh, sun-baked corn

.

Rain is pants - anything else the lifts can stay open in is good if you've got appropriate clobber (and very good for one's skiing/mountaincraft). However, since the question "for your week" implies just six precious days a year, I'd want blue skies every day, two foot of champagne every night on the north face, perfect corn on the south face, zero avi risk, and just me and my mates on the hill snowHead

!

After all it is free

rain everywhere is rbbish but I have skied a few times when it's been rain at the bottom of the mountain and still had a good day, decent waterproofs help.

I love Spring skiing, slush is great, a lot of people don't seem to like that, when we were in tux in the summer we were skiing through puddles at times but I would take that over ice any day

Even fresh snow can be overrated. Thinking back to a day last Feb when the mother of all snow dumps came overnight. Most skiers in my group (and pretty much everone else on the hill as far as I could tell!) had completely the wrong piste/carving equipment (and technique for that matter), and spent all day digging themselves out of holes. Pisteurs had no chance to bash it all down, so it was basically off-piste whilst on-piste for a day. Carnage.

Gun-to-head situation - powder in crap vis vs. a few twigs poking through the ice under a blue sky.

Argh.

Blue sky please.

No wait. The other one.

Argh! Bang.

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Back to post number 1

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Horrible conditions include:

Lifts closed by avalanche risk and generally being buried in snow (as famously happened for 5 days in Arabba recently) an all off piste activity prohibited.

Lifts closed by high winds (as in Les Saisies when I left this morning, almost blinded at times by the amount of loose snow blowing across the road).

snow reports

This thread reminds me of a trip to Megeve a few years ago.

We had a brilliant first day- visibility was poor and it was raining at village level. But the rain turned to snow a little up the mountain, pistes were nicely groomed then covered in about a foot of fresh snow, which was still falling. We barely saw anyone else all day. At about 430 we skiied the home run, an easy red, and there were no other tracks down it nor people on it. We just couldn't stop laughing at how good the conditions were.

In a restaurant that evening we chatted to a woman. When she heard we were only there for the weekend, and this was the first day, she said she was very sorry for us and the conditions we'd had to put up with.

We said it was the best ski day we'd ever had, and she was very confused.

janeed, indeed Smile

Few people moaning about rain, but that often happens in Spring here at resort level (1400) but at around 1800 then it's usually snow.

Before the days of snow cannon then runs to resort by March could often be closed, that's why there are so many mid station nursery areas / ski school meeting points / restaurants etc at that level of the mid station(s).

It is depressing though when the freezing level is over 2500 and instead of snow will be rain - as is the case (at the moment) for late Friday / Saturday Crying or Very sad

pam w, and yes high winds can be more depressing that rain, seeing all that lovely powder being stripped bare as has been the case a couple of times this season!
Just have to go and find where it's been dumped Cool

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

High winds (enough to blow you over) are worst for me because -
You can't ski, lifts are normally shut.
Snow is being stripped off the mountain or blown around onto leeward slopes making the avalanche conditions much worse.

Best = just enough fresh over night to fill in the tracks so you can ski the same powder slopes again and sunny blue skies.

A snowHead

Bad conditions (IMO)

Lack of snow
Slushy snow
boiler plate
utter white out

Good conditions (IMO)

Light powder, anything more than 10" and the mrs and kid struggle.
snow overnight and sun during the day (obviously optimum conditions)
Well groomed pistes

Acceptable conditions (IMO)

Snowing
wind
heavy snow but no fog

A snowHead

Just back from a week on Courmayeur. We had snow every day. It was brilliant, even when the clouds limited visibility to 3 or 4 metres - I didn;t really enjoy that but the snow was so good it took my mind off the visibility Smile

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I'd sooner have fresh and falling snow than sunshine and poor conditions. Obviously, the ideal is to have snow at night and sunshine the following day ( had a couple of weeks like that last year). Quite happy with sunshine and immaculate pistes. Dont like whiteouts with the mist down. Can cope with heavyish snow especially if runs are tree lined. Dont like high winds. Don't worry about cold that's what layers are for. It was parky a couple of times at the top of Sarenne in ADH last year with heavy winds and the first 1km not fun but thereafter once out of wind.

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Perfect: Snow all night, sun all day.

Terrible: Rain all day, Iced overnight

Had quite a few of the first over the years, never the second.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Bad conditions: lifts closed all day so high winds, too much snow, electrical storm;
No snow at all.

Good conditions: cold but sunny,
soft powder on smoothly bashed base
Perfect corduroy
Falling powder snow.

Would still ski but probably take a proper lunch break:
Ice -concrete style
Falling heavy snow making progress difficult with rubbish visibility and unavoidable flat sections. Snow quality rather than quantity.
Really heavy slush
Rain/sleet.

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Good Conditions: Anything that leaves snow on the mountains but scares the crowds away. I tend to prefer if it's snowing, cloudy or windy nowadays. It's even better if the clouds lift and the sun breaks through in the afternoon.

Bad Conditions: Anything that puts a lot of people on the slopes with a lot of them misjudging what the conditions will be like in the afternoons. These would be the sunny days where the runs get skied out really quickly and turn really bumpy. I find these are perfect afternoons for the bars on the mountain-side.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

pretty much anything other than white out conditions is a good day. As long as i can see where i'm going then there's always fun to be had somewhere Smile

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What do you think are great / horrible conditions for your week ?

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