 Poster: A snowHead
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KennyEverett, as usual it's best on the upper slopes! Fingers crossed you will get here in between the forecasted snowfalls!
For a bit of balance here is the village of Longefoy (not a ski resort) below Montalbert at 1170 meters and always in the sunshine.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Whitegold, you stated a range 20-40% without making it clear what it refer to. That's lazy.
Now apparently one end of your "statistic" referred to one thing (time) and the other another (money). That's nonsensical and misleading.
As far as I can make out you just seem to want to post to irritate and annoy people. That's trolling.
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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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| nozawaonsen wrote: |
@Whitegold, you stated a range 20-40% without making it clear what it refer to. That's lazy.
Now apparently one end of your "statistic" referred to one thing (time) and the other another (money). That's nonsensical and misleading.
As far as I can make out you just seem to want to post to irritate and annoy people. That's trolling. |
I think the 40% by money is a pretty good way of measuring the season. It's broadly speaking skier-days, isn't it?
Some people have got themselves mightily annoyed just because Whitegold has pointed out that the wigglies are wiggling! If there were more snow, people wouldn't be so irritable...
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40% by money? It's still december ffs, we were still skiing / renting / eating / drinking in April last year. Surely any of the 3 mid term weeks (due to staggered school holidays) brings in more revenue than xmas.....we STILL haven't added up New Year, all of Jan, the rest of Feb, all of March (including Easter), and a few weeks in April. Personally, I am about 10% through the season, maybe less if we get huge snow
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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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There is a reason December is called "early season"!
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| Weathercam wrote: |
so could make for an interesting transfer weekend.
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Rain all day in resort, some people will need boats to get home.
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| James the Last wrote: |
| nozawaonsen wrote: |
@Whitegold, you stated a range 20-40% without making it clear what it refer to. That's lazy.
Now apparently one end of your "statistic" referred to one thing (time) and the other another (money). That's nonsensical and misleading.
As far as I can make out you just seem to want to post to irritate and annoy people. That's trolling. |
I think the 40% by money is a pretty good way of measuring the season. It's broadly speaking skier-days, isn't it?
Some people have got themselves mightily annoyed just because Whitegold has pointed out that the wigglies are wiggling! If there were more snow, people wouldn't be so irritable... |
Think Whitegold a tad pessimistic in his review of the season so far. No point in saying it has been a wonderful few weeks for skiing in the Alps, certainly not if you demand excellent snow from early morning to last run home in late afternoon or want to enjoy infinite vistas of white hills and snow capped peaks. However, generally it appears that in most resorts, man made snow gave people a decent opportunity to enjoy some bit of skiing.
As poster above pointed out December is "early season".
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| Dr John wrote: |
| A friend of mine, well experienced in the alps and not usually given to panic, keeps telling me there is "no snow", despite the evidence to the contrary on web-cams (St Anton specifically), |
The Ladies FIS World Cup races have been cancelled at St Anton due to "lack of snow". I don't think they would do this without good evidence.
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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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Meanwhile, another good day in the Espace Killy - fresh tracks through boot deep 'sugar snow' - but it did require 10 minutes skinning. Val D'Isere lift ticket sales up on last year by 1% for the 3 weeks up to and including Christmas, so not a disaster up here. 
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@nozawaonsen, what's your game nozza, coming in here knowing what you're on about, raising the tone of the place!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@maggi, the Arlberg is bigger than one run, and race prepared is a lot different to punter prepared. They had to cancel early to give time to rearrange. Unless St Anton is running a huge web cam scam and lying on the open runs board, there's plenty open.
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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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Wow, reading all you lot bitching! Don't panic, the snow will come. Winter of 80/81 was just the same, i remember walking in slip slops from Dec to Feb in the village at Saas Fee and then the snow arrived and we had a great season to finish albeit with some monster avalanches- that's the real downside of a late start. Without all those cannons there would have been precious little skiing these last 2 weeks. Have just spent my first week on piste for years in Cervinia and was immensely impressed at the man made stuff and never queued all week and the sun shone every day. Fab week!
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73cm forecast to fall by Monday here up top according to Snowforecast.com 
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You know it makes sense.
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I wonder how much of this forecast snow will actually stick around as the base is pretty much gone and the ground is still warm.
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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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If it's cold @never summer, then it really just means the start of the season has been delayed. If it stays cold and reverts to normal Jan/Feb patterns, it should all build up nicely.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Fingers crossed!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@never summer, ground is definitely frozen at this end of the Alps, so no problem keeping the snow once it falls 
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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.
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It's not going to be snowmaggedon. It's going to rain, a lot, below 1400m. It's a start but frankly unless you are going high it's going to be a wet week generally.
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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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| zzz wrote: |
| It's not going to be snowmaggedon. It's going to rain, a lot, below 1400m. It's a start but frankly unless you are going high it's going to be a wet week generally. |
boatmaggedon
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I do think a poor start will set the tone, in business terms, for the rest of the season. Sure peak weeks will probably already be booked up but off peak might be down - certainly in the British ski market. Snow will help some last minute bookings. The impact of two poor Christmas/New Years in a row might have an impact on 2016 Christmas with irregular weeks with when Christmas falls.
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@chrisb, new year wasn't poor last year.
I was fully expecting a slow start to this season after last year's poor xmas, but that didn't happen (which is great).
I think the strengthening £ and a perception that a poor start wouldn't happen again (people don't seem to understand weather) kept early season bookings strong...for us anyway...
As far as I can tell all our clients are happy this week anyway.
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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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@stewart woodward, same here, all though down the valley sun is attempting to break through but further up the valley dense low cloud.
Though pressure here still very high.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@davidof,
Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...
And...
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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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To sum up, more snow would be better 
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| chrisb wrote: |
| I do think a poor start will set the tone, in business terms, for the rest of the season. Sure peak weeks will probably already be booked up but off peak might be down - certainly in the British ski market. Snow will help some last minute bookings. The impact of two poor Christmas/New Years in a row might have an impact on 2016 Christmas with irregular weeks with when Christmas falls. |
Think the "last minute" market going to become huge factor in coming years. People with kids obviously limited but small groups, couples, singles, etc are going to ensure snow conditions are good before travelling.
However, you can be sure that if Christmas 2016 bookings fall of a cliff, the snow will be perfect, with huge dumps earlier in the month and sunshine/blue skies for the Christmas/New Year periods.
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You know it makes sense.
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^ As much fun as it is to (occasionally) ride white ribbons, they are shocking photos.
It doesn't bode well for the longterm future of the European Wintersports industry when most news reports out of the Alps these days tend to be green trails, melting glaciers or monster traffic jams.
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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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@Whitegold, you've made a climate assumption, based on a weather event.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@under a new name, yes you are right that new year was better because of the heavy snow that fell on the Saturday. I was meaning the general holiday peak season. glad your guests have had a good time. Speaking to business owners over the years many put so much into their business, so I hope everyone has a successful season.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@chrisb, it's worse for the hotels with short cancellation windows. We're hearing 40-50% cancellations in Chamonix.
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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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| Feast wrote: |
| @Whitegold, you've made a climate assumption, based on a weather event. |
Was referring to the perceptions the bad news reports set.
Among non-Snowheads / casual skiers (the masses) -- particularly the young (next generation funding the Alps) and old (current funders), and those outside Europe -- there is, for now, a relentless wave of bad news that is giving them a negative image of the Alps. It doesn't bode well for the next decade and beyond. Fewer will ski -- rightly or wrongly -- if they think it sucks.
On the climate topic -- the climate in the Alps is unquestionably warming up. The glaciers and snowfields are melting in the heat at an alarming rate (as they have done steadily for 10,000 years or more).
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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There were some brief flurries of snow up the top here in Les Houches this morning. But nothing that could make any impact on the dire combination of a thin layer of snow overlying grass and mud. Had a quick loop around the Noire de Maison Neuf (mid-section of the Kandahar downhill) after lunch and was shocked at how soft the snow was although my son said it was very hard first thing.
Coming back to the apartment just know, temp according to the car thermo as 7C - yesterday at this time it was -1C, I though it was supposed to be getting colder.
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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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| Whitegold wrote: |
^ As much fun as it is to (occasionally) ride white ribbons, they are shocking photos.
It doesn't bode well for the longterm future of the European Wintersports industry when most news reports out of the Alps these days tend to be green trails, melting glaciers or monster traffic jams. |
Yeah, no-one goes there anymore 'cos of the monster traffic jams.
You're not related to Yoga Berra are you?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@under a new name, the likes of Chamonix and La Grave will always be the hardest hit as the "freeriders" are far more choosy with their conditions unlike families.
Like has been mentioned a fair few times, many people have had a great time, that's if you're not a freerider / powder hound / offpiste joc etc etc
My mate who was in Gressony for Xmas week with his parents and was due to stay with me this week, went back to the UK on Monday saving their vacation time for later in the season.
And @Whitegold, these conditions are nothing new, it's happened many times before, and did not put people off then nor now.
How long have you actually been skiing ??
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I have no doubt that the warm start to the season for the last two years has further helped the high resorts. For ousreselves not only do we not have a single free week in our Val Thorens apartment now for this season but that we could have sold some weeks several times over and have bookings already for next December.
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@emwmarine, but how's your summer bookings?
Seriously VT will still be far busier than say here lower down over the next four or so week purely because of the big tour ops from many countries having to fill all those beds.
I know where I'd rather be when the snow does come.
Last edited by After all it is free  on Thu 31-12-15 14:33; edited 2 times in total
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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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| Whitegold wrote: |
^ As much fun as it is to (occasionally) ride white ribbons, they are shocking photos.
It doesn't bode well for the longterm future of the European Wintersports industry when most news reports out of the Alps these days tend to be green trails, melting glaciers or monster traffic jams. |
It's called writing news headlines. No need to know anything about the facts, just interview a couple of ill-informed punters.
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There have been traffic jams on peak weeks for 30 years, as the roads improve so do the amount of vehicles - queuing at the peage is French institution in the winter and the 3 big transfer days in Jul/Aug. On the other hand aircraft are much more reliable and less subject to delay. There are thousands of youngsters enjoying themselves in Tignes today even though the weather is a bit crabby. No green trails here - even down to Les Brevieres.
Sorry that doesn't make a headline though.
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