 Poster: A snowHead
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I have never fully understood why resorts close like Grindelwald close so early every year when they have masses of fresh powder giving fab conditions. I understand maintenance on the gondolas needs to happen before the Summer season starts but looking at the Maanlichen webcam this morning it has great snow, it's kids hols and the stations are now closed. Such a shame and such a loss in revenue surely?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@emmaski, Most resort staff have other jobs and have to be able to plan their attendance. Travel operators don't find it easy just to add a few weeks to the season and to sell those weeks at minimal notice. Some infrastructure work may well need every available week before next season. Farmers be the slopes back for grazing etc. The short answer, I presume, is that a resort requires thousands of people to keep it running and they need some certainty.
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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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Two factors I'm aware of. In some cases ski areas are leased from local farmers and a specific closing date is part of the contract. And many resort workers have summer employment which starts after the closure of the ski season and is non negotiable. For example, a friend who is a Maestro in an Italian resort finished teaching on Sunday 10 April and was back in his office as a geometra (surveyor) on Monday 11 April.
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Most French people stop skiing after the middle of March, regardless of the amount of snow. The shops are full of bikes and tents. The slopes in Les Saisies were deserted when I left a week ago, and they still had several weeks to go. Apart from the obvious need to tell the workers when their contracts will end, I doubt whether the few lift passes being sold covered the cost of running the lifts.
There was plenty of snow but the exceptionally warm weather (apart from a couple of days a week ago) meant that there had been no overnight freeze for some time. The quality of the snow soon deteriorates and many people (as you can see from posts here on Snowheads) don't like skiing in slush. Or on rock hard early morning corduroy, come to that, though we've seen precious little of that this Spring.
On the other hand, Spring skiing can be delightful, and accommodation costs very low. After mid March counts as "low season" in French resorts, same prices as mid January.
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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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@pam w, spot on for these parts too.
There are only enough people to fill one or two late closing areas.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Italians also stop skiing relatively early, so many resorts close with good snow depths. They have run out of punters, not snow.
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There are a huge number of factors in this and most have been covered. One not mentioned is airline schedules. The last weekend in March sees the change to the summer schedules for scheduled and charter airlines. Seasonal staff will also be heading home for a few weeks before they head off to their summer placements.
I am sure if late snow was assured (such as in Espace Killy) and there was sufficient demand, then resorts would open.
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The airlines stop then because of insufficient demand, I guess. They're pretty switched on to the elasticities. 
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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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Good points re human behaviour. My experience from living in Italy is that people tend to stop and start doing things on specific dates, and this is fairly rigid. Explains the funny looks you tend to get when you swim in the sea off Italy outside July and August!
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My neighbours (Franco/Belgian couple) continued to drive down and back on Saturdays, even after they'd retired. I teased them about it, and they have started branching out, tentatively, to other days of the week.
I am always amused to see the camper vans arriving and leaving on a Saturday, too.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Gaza wrote: |
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I am sure if late snow was assured (such as in Espace Killy) and there was sufficient demand, then resorts would open. |
If there was demand. And there isn't.
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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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Let's not forget that a lot of the land is owned or used by farmers. In many areas the snow is only still there because it has been compacted down, they want the grass clear and land dry so they can send the animals out to graze.
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Similar deal here in Australia. September often has fantastic snow, but by the second week there are tumbleweeds in the streets of the resort. Punters have moved to the beach. People skiing tend to be the diehards and locals on season passes. Not enough incremental income for the lift company to keep the lifts spinning.
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You know it makes sense.
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People like novelty and change. That's why so many ski at Christmas and New Year, often poor times for snow cover and always dark. And why so many people in the UK were parading round in ludicrously skimpy garments when it was warmer a few days ago. Yesterday sorted them out; much colder and a nippy wind. 
And my last week or so in France I didn't go to the snow, I went down into the trees and green pastures, with wild flowers burgeoning everywhere. I'd had enough of snow.
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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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I suppose given recent seasons' weather patterns there's an argument for making the season later, say early January to late April. But how that would work for landowners, hoteliers, lift workers, ski schools and the general infrastructure is probably the main issue. Plus weather is weather, we have no control over it.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Agree with all the above. At least one hotelier in Val Thorens I know has a small hotel in Normandy that he goes to at the end of April to open up.
I think it applies to Brits as well. Our apartment is usually rented out from Dec to April and we use it ourselves including through April. Yet I can't remember ever getting a booking request for the last week in April or first week in May. Difficult to even give those weeks away to friends.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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@mountainaddict, what I meant about novelty is that people are desperate to get out on the snow at the beginning of winter, though New Year is guaranteed to be busy and expensive. And by no means guaranteed good snow. And they desperate to go walking round in the "summer" clothes when it's still rather parky in Spring. And I hugely enjoyed the first wild flowers of the Alpine year - though there'll be plenty more later!
I, personally, have just had a chat with a friend about sailing next weekend. When it promises to be rather chilly, albeit a NE wind will carry us nicely down the Solent. My skiing merino base layers will be just the job. I'm quite excited about being back out on the water. I'm not going to wish my life away till the next ski season.
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| pam w wrote: |
| I'd had enough of snow. |
Pah! Call yourself a snowHead?
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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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I was in Avoriaz Weds and today, both times it was snowing heavily and there is heaps of snow everywhere. However, both times I was only up there to go swimming, as the kids have got no interest in skiing any more this season.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Well the resort we go to every year in Canada BC typically closes with a 2-3m base. It's simply down to the commercials of demand. One year they experimented with staying open for an extra week and it obviously didn't pay enough as they haven't done it since, although they are trying it again next year after sales were well up this season.
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I'm happy with closing up and everyone buggering off now please 
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@Nadenoodlee,
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I'm happy with closing up and everyone buggering off now please
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+1
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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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When we skied in NZ the Ruapehu fields could extend the season by a few weeks if there was snow which was great when the snow was bad early but came later. But I was less impressed when they wanted us season ticket holders to pay, albeit at a lower rate than casuals, during the extended season days despite the fact that there were many days when they didnt open during the normal "season" and when I couldnt find what dates defined the season on the season ticket.
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When we were in Les Deux Alpes in Feb, the chalet staff had been advised they may extend the season by a further week dependent on snow conditions, but told us they were contracted until a certain date anyway to close down the chalet, etc, so no great shakes to them. But for people who, like my instructor, who don't live in resort full time and head off to other jobs for the closed season, it's understandable that they cab't necessarily change plans at short notice.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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It's not "madness", just business.
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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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It's really not madness, seasonal resorts like those in the Bernese Oberland employ staff for fixed periods where they know they can take money, then maintenance and repairs tend to be done out of season, they are only shut for a month or so from early/mid April then they open for the summer until the middle of October then shut for two months, generally any renovations and building work on hotels in these areas gets done in the downtimes often spread over several years, this means guests don't get disturbed by builders and staff can have a decent holiday themselves, the cattle won't go to the high mountain pastures until probably the end of may and will be back down in september, mountain lifts generally get replaced pretty quickly having been prefabricated prior to the end of the winter season, big lifts may well have had the bases built the previous year so only the concrete buildings need to be built in the short summer build period. Also the pools of water required to do snow making need to be refilled, repairs are often required to slopes and a host of other structural issues need sorting, plus whilst there may be fair to good skiing higher up the resort runs are often melted so you are dependent on coming back down the mountain on a lift, not everywhere can deal with that
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Compagnie du Mont Blanc extended opening for Flegere and Balme Vallorcine by a week this year because the snow was so good. Pity about the weather!
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You know it makes sense.
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| Nadenoodlee wrote: |
I'm happy with closing up and everyone buggering off now please
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only 8 weeks or so before the stormtroopers turn up wearing baggy pyjamas, to bomb down on rad bikes instead. hope there's not another thunder in the alps Harley convention there again.
sport shops here swapped from ski stuff to swimwear a couple of weeks back. even the old ex-rental ski rummage bin section in the corner has gone.
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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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Getting on the Plateau Poma at Glencoe around 9:30 yesterday morning I mentioned to the lifty how quiet it was, he replied "including you (three) there must be, hmm.....12 people on the hill"! By midday there may have been 2 or 3 times that lapping Main Basin so still not a lot. Glencoe are reporting a snow depth of 283cm on upper runs, average of Main Basin & Happy Valley (approx 3500ft):
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Happy Valley: 140cm
Main Basin: 425cm
Last Measured: 06/04/16
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It was a tad windy which probably reduced numbers, however that wind was coming over from the back of the hill depositing snow continually on the piste for creamy smooth decent, and fast downhill with a tailwind.
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Poster: A snowHead
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We were in our local Decathlon at the weekend and idly looking for a new ski bag for SWMBOs new skibats (£7.99 cheapie one) Found the thing on their computer but all their ski stuff went back to the warehouse last weekend - they even said that their "Ski Staff" aren't there anymore.
Euro-resorts do seem to have that definitive shutdown date, things are a bit more fluid in the US - Mammoth, for example, regularly stays open (or at least partially open) until the 4th July holiday weekend if they have snow coverage.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I took my skis into the ski shop in Les Gets last Wednesday afternoon, on the bus with the dog, to have them serviced and waxed before I put them away for the winter. Some of the lifts were still going to be open till the 17th and I had been skiing there till the day before. But the 'big machine' had been put away and they couldn't be done. He did unscrew the bindings to release the pressure, so I walked back up the hill carrying the skis, till the bus came along and the bus driver roared with laughter when I told him. Could have been my very poor French of course.
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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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@Pamski, I can get my skis serviced in Serre Chevalier in the summer if I want them doing. I just leave them on my terrasse and this nice man does them for me . If I'm very lucky I don't even need to put them on the terrasse.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Well i just noticed Squaw Valley CA is staying open until may 31 - which is a three day weekend here. So that's very tempting if i can find any reasonable flight options. Sure accoms be easy to find.
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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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Same every year. Mass panic when the snow is poor before new year then no interest after Easter when the snow pack is approaching it's deepest at altitude 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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March and April are the best months for skiing in the Northern Hemisphere.
Good snow, good sun and good crowds.
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@Hells Bells, mine won't do that! He does wallop on a bit of wax occasionally, but we don't need any more tools, huge cupboard full already...
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@Hells Bells, mine won't do that! He does wallop on a bit of wax occasionally, but we don't need any more tools, huge cupboard full already...
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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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Economics....It costs thousands to keep lifts operating with few customers
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It's the season pass that's the issue for most places. Staying open longer generally does not generate the revenue but even if it did resorts would start getting competitive about pricing season passes. It's a diminishing returns thing, season pass people have already paid so you would not be generating additional revenue if most of your users in the 'additional' weeks are season pass holders. So you bench mark against neighbouring resorts with an eye on the snow history to try and hit the sweet spot between closing too early and charging the max. for a season pass. None of the locals who work the resorts I know would complain about the additional income. 
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FAQ
- but Cairngorm and Glencoe still going strong 
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