Ski Club 2.0 Home
Snow Reports
FAQFAQ

Mail for help.Help!!

Log in to snowHeads to make it MUCH better! Registration's totally free, of course, and makes snowHeads easier to use and to understand, gives better searching, filtering etc. as well as access to 'members only' forums, discounts and deals that U don't even know exist as a 'guest' user. (btw. 50,000+ snowHeads already know all this, making snowHeads the biggest, most active community of snow-heads in the UK, so you'll be in good company)..... When you register, you get our free weekly(-ish) snow report by email. It's rather good and not made up by tourist offices (or people that love the tourist office and want to marry it either)... We don't share your email address with anyone and we never send out any of those cheesy 'message from our partners' emails either. Anyway, snowHeads really is MUCH better when you're logged in - not least because you get to post your own messages complaining about things that annoy you like perhaps this banner which, incidentally, disappears when you log in :-)
Username:-
 Password:
Remember me:
👁 durr, I forgot...
Or: Register
(to be a proper snow-head, all official-like!)

Snow conditions- Your worst trip

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
First day of one trip was foggy and raining cats and dogs, we went up the gondola hoping it would clear up.....it didn't. Did a couple of runs, got soaked, had hot chocoalte and then lunch, gondola back down and got a refund on the lift pass. Fortunately the rest of the week was excellent and enough snow for the 6km run to the bottom to the valley floor was open.
ski holidays
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
You should put yhis Topic in context.

Years ago we did not have the accurate longterm forecasts.

Resorts did not have anywhere near the artificial snowmaking capacity they have now.

Without snowmaking many resorts will be still closed for wintersports.
snow report
 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?
Went to Les Arcs right at the start of the season in 2014-15, so mid December. It was just a 4 day trip with 3 friends, we flew into GVA and drove down, stopping at Val Thorens on the first afternoon and got a really nice few hours of skiing in. At Les Arcs the nest day only 3 or 4 of the lifts in the whole resort were open, all in the 2000 bowl, and it was pretty much artificial snow only and boilerplate in lots of areas, grass coming through in others. We spent the first day doing a few runs before returning to the bar early afternoon (as it happens my mate had just opened his new bar (Whistlers) in 2000 so it was great to see that). There was no further snowfall so we binned off the following 2 days and spent most of the time in the bar; great times! Just treated it as a lads long weekend away and were pleased with the first couple of days that we did actually get on the slopes.
snow conditions
 You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
Quote:

Soldeu in mid January 2007, icy or slushy slopes depending on time of day. The link to Pas del Casa wasn't open either but could get a bus although wasn't much better there.
Only found a photo recently and you forget how bad it really was. Never been to Andorra since.


We were booked diy to go to Pas de le casa around the same time but cancelled and got a last minute deal to Flaine instead. Wasn't much better there until it dumped around 60cm mid week.

I wouldn't let that week put you off going back to Andorra. I've been around 10 times now and In My opinion they tend to get more frequent snow fall than the alps, especially in the second half of the season.
latest report
 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
joydivision wrote:
Quote:

Soldeu in mid January 2007, icy or slushy slopes depending on time of day. The link to Pas del Casa wasn't open either but could get a bus although wasn't much better there.
Only found a photo recently and you forget how bad it really was. Never been to Andorra since.


We were booked diy to go to Pas de le casa around the same time but cancelled and got a last minute deal to Flaine instead. Wasn't much better there until it dumped around 60cm mid week.

I wouldn't let that week put you off going back to Andorra. I've been around 10 times now and In My opinion they tend to get more frequent snow fall than the alps, especially in the second half of the season.


True, I do feel I've unfinished business with it, just a case of once bitten twice shy
snow conditions
 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
Another one for St Lary in the French Pair-o-knees. It was sometime in the late '70s and there was absolutely no snow for the whole week and we were bussed every day to Espiaube and I can remember singing the song "It's a long way to Espiaube". There was virtually nothing their either.

Another time a friend encouraged me to help with the driving from London to Nevis Range one friday night. We were first in line for tickets on the saturday morning but it was stormbound. Same thing on the sunday. Glencoe had same problem. We went for a walk, then drove home.

I've had various other encounters with sketchy cover or closed lifts over the years. Back in the day there simply was no reliable info, you very often found out on the transfer bus. We're in dreamland today.
snow report
 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Snow&skifan wrote:
Mine was a DAY TRIP to Chamonix, from Gatwick (with Thomas Cook) in mid March 2003 I think. A friend's idea, not mine! After many hours spent travelling and collecting rental skis, the afternoon was spent skiing on piste on very deep 'treacle', in hot temperatures. It was impossible to turn or carve properly and the experience was energy sapping.

Totally unenjoyable, but some lessons were learnt: Avoid very short trips to the Alps and always choose resorts with higher altitude slopes when spring skiing.

In contrast our next trip was to Ischgl, in February 2004 - a great resort with friendly people, good skiiing and a fantastic holiday.
latest report
 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
joydivision wrote:
jvan wrote:

Soldeu in mid January 2007, icy or slushy slopes depending on time of day. The link to Pas del Casa wasn't open either but could get a bus although wasn't much better there.
Only found a photo recently and you forget how bad it really was. Never been to Andorra since.


We were booked diy to go to Pas de le casa around the same time but cancelled and got a last minute deal to Flaine instead. Wasn't much better there until it dumped around 60cm mid week.

I wouldn't let that week put you off going back to Andorra. I've been around 10 times now and In My opinion they tend to get more frequent snow fall than the alps, especially in the second half of the season.


Indeed, 2006-2007 was a terrible season in the Pyrenees; happily we haven't seen the likes of it since, and often there are better conditions in Grandvalira than in many places in the Alps (and for the last few years, over at the other end of the mountain range, the western Pyrenees has been the home of the resort whose cumulative snowfall by mid-to-late season was the greatest in the world!).

As joydivision says, your best bet for the Pyrenees is always February and March, although a last-minute early-December trip after the usual snowfall that kicks the season off is also a good idea if the price is right. January is typically the worst month for snowfall; we get blocked by a consistent high pressure anticyclone. (That's what makes Barcelona a popular winter city-break!) This year everyone's seeing it first-hand in the Alps too - even more so than last year - since it's wandered north-east somewhat.

Happily the Pyrenees does tend to get that early dump in November which makes a base, which then gets topped up by excellent snowmaking; whereas I get the impression that this didn't happen in many places in the Alps. Right now people seem to be canceling Alpine holidays left, right and centre, and yet Grandvalira's still going strong despite similarly not having received natural snow for a few weeks.

Plan a Pyrenees trip for mid-Feb to mid-March when the real snowfalls have started, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!
latest report
 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.
'05 in Whistler and Mt.Baker. Mate and I did a 2-week, 2 centre trip in Feb/March and experienced the "Year of no snow". Whistler still had reasonable coverage but only because they were moving snow around every night, but Baker was suffering badly - the whole Shuksan side was closed, and all the trails off Panorama were suffering. Ended up tearing one of the rails out of my board on an exposed stump that trip. They were threatening to close down completely for the season the weekend we left, but 24 hours later, it dumped and they salvaged the remainder of the season, although they did still have to cancel the banked slalom weekend.
ski holidays
 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Les Arcs - Easter 2011

latest report
 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Fernie - March 2006. The Ski Club of Great Britain were running a holiday entitled Powder Paradise there at the same time. It would have been better named Slush Safari. Very warm, runs were closing at an alarming rate during the fortnight as the snowline raced uphill. Just about skiable first thing, the afternoons were a deep porridge nightmare. A very long way to go for very poor conditions.

Otherwise, have been pretty fortunate in 40 years' plus of skiing!
latest report
 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.
Richard_Sideways wrote:
'05 in Whistler
I've only hit it right once in Whistler in 3 goes. Either its been a snow drought or raining. Wins all the awards but most overrated place on earth in my experience.
ski holidays
 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
I'm not sure "we arrived to no snow, but then it hoofed it down the next night so everything was fine" really counts as a worst ski trip.
snow conditions
 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Tend to go Feb half term, so snow is good, even if there are too many people on the pistes. Worse conditions recently were in Hemsedal - there was snow, but it was more like sugar. The holiday in which I have skied least was in La Thuile because there was too much snow - it dumped and dumped and dumped.....
snow report
 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
I've had many lol. Worst probably Saalbach Xmas two years ago. About 35/200 km open. Had poor but better conditions in kitzbuhel and soll and morzine where the runs were open but skiing wasn't always particularly fun.
latest report
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Morzine approx. 5 years ago. Went in late March and stayed in the Hotel Viking at the top of the Pleny. Watched the snow level get thinner and higher up the mountain in the lead up to the trip. Will never forget the sights of firstly my son in ski school following an instructor down the slope in the pouring rain and secondly the piste machine moving piles of mud (with a bit of snow added) around each night to try to keep the run outside the hotel open. Think they eventually gave up and on the last day it was literally "skiing" on mud corridors from one isolated patch of snow to another. Sad
snow conditions
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Boris wrote:
Les Arcs - Easter 2011


That was my first working season; and it had all started so fabulously, December was amazing! Then just after Xmas it just stopped snowing. I was originally supposed to finish the season mid-April (18th I think) but there were so few bookings they let half of us go home 10 days earlier. I remember my last day on the slopes, probably 6th or 7th April, skiing down to the Arpette restaurant then having to walk down the last 100m to the chairlift as there was not enough snow to ski to it. Muddy ski boots, not a great look.
ski holidays
 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?
In almost 30 years of booking most ski trips at least months in advance, I have (very fortunately given the tales on here) never had a snowless/only one or two runs open/green mountains ski holiday abroad.

In fact I'm struggling to think of any trips when conditions (at altitude at least on late season trips) haven't been generally pretty decent.

Excluding storm bound Scottish ski areas (annoyingly contrary to the weather forecast....) on a couple of trips, worst ever conditions would be Zell am See in March one year about 1990....

Snow only on the top bit of the local hill - still quite entertaining as hadn't been skiing long - but then queuing from about 06.30 each day (bussed in by our tour operator) for a couple of hours for the ill-fated funicular up to the glacier at Kaprun.

Was also disappointed on a January visit to Utah to ski the greatest snow on earth to have 10 days wall to wall sun and ski nothing but groomers in increasingly warm temperatures....
ski holidays
 You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
99% of my trips have been to the high resorts of France so thankfully I haven't had a bad week in any real sense. The worst conditions would probably have to be Killington, Vermont April 1998. Pure slush. But given how low the "mountains" are, hardly suprising. They were more like glorified hills.
ski holidays
 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
In 1981-2 we spent Christmas and New Year in La Mongie in the Pyrenees. Snow fell every night. It was meters deep, and in the daytime we had brilliant sunshine. The next year 1982-3 we thought we would beat the system. We went to the Pyrenees again over Christmas and New Year, and booked a hotel at the top of the main lift in Pla d'Adet. We arrived to a vista of brown mountains, and travelled up the cable car to our hotel. Every day for the next two weeks we had to travel DOWN the cable car to get a bus to another resort, where we skied on slicks of ice, rubbing shoulders with crowds of others.
snow report



Terms and conditions  Privacy Policy