Poster: A snowHead
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Hi
I recently skied in Val D' Isere (25-30 January 2015) and came across the following curiosity.[img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/oeixk1e5kjcaeaw/DSC00792.JPG?dl=0[/img]
Does anyone know what and why this is here? It can be found under the Vallon bubble lift.
By the way the skiing was fantastic.
Matt Bastin
Melbourne, Australia
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Could be wrong but I think it's a monument to Hannibal who (supposedly) went over that pass on his way to Italy. With elephants. Poor things.
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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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That Hannibal sure went over a lot of different passes; current thinking is that he went via Montgenevre.
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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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Thanks for the replies. One thing I discovered since original post and that is probably well known to most is that there an important road that goes through this valley. Named the D902 (Route des Grandes Alpes) which at some stage becomes the highest paved road in the alps (?). Anyway this is more likely to be a landmark for the road passage rather than skiers.
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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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mattbastin wrote: |
Hi
I recently skied in Val D' Isere (25-30 January 2015) and came across the following curiosity.
Does anyone know what and why this is here? It can be found under the Vallon bubble lift.
By the way the skiing was fantastic.
Matt Bastin
Melbourne, Australia |
There you go. Fixed your Dropbox link. For future; replace www with dl and remove the ?dl=0 from the end.☺
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Asked about this in the Val d'isere museum last year, We were told it is to mark the route through the valley and would have been lit with a fire ,as well as providing some form of shelter .
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@Gaza, And now for the first time, that monument can be seen from space!
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Thanks very much for supplied info and very much appreciate the tip wrt dropbox address
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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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mattbastin wrote: |
Thanks for the replies. One thing I discovered since original post and that is probably well known to most is that there an important road that goes through this valley. Named the D902 (Route des Grandes Alpes) which at some stage becomes the highest paved road in the alps (?). Anyway this is more likely to be a landmark for the road passage rather than skiers. |
This is the Col De L'Iseran. Altitude 2770m. 17Km by road from Val D'isere. I've visited the pass by skiing in winter and driving in summer. The road up to the pass is the Mattis red piste in the winter. In the summer the top of the piste markers are about 6m from ground level, which shows just how much snow they expect to have in winter!
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mattbastin wrote: |
Thanks very much for supplied info and very much appreciate the tip wrt dropbox address |
You also need to resize it before sticking it in your Dropbox otherwise you get the problem seen above!
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