 Poster: A snowHead
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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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Good to see this thread up and running!
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Excellent. Keep it up.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@nozawaonsen, thanks, I've been meaning to get it started for weeks but have spent too long staring at a computer for work to find the energy!
@cad99uk, cheers!
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Fantastic photos! 
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Why couldn’t I be there? 
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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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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Hurtle, thanks!
@geepee, it's not too late!
@Scarlet, haha indeed! Still you'll be adding to this thread in no time too!
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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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The last storm brought much of the freeride terrain close to Innsbruck into a reasonable state of play, but given it came in pretty windy with warm sun swiftly following I thought it would be a good idea to leave the snow to settle for a day or two before venturing out, and didn't ski again until Thursday.
By this point the Innsbruck skitouring community had been out in force, and much of the reasonable routes had been skied out. Chrisi and I went out for a dawn ski tour for the exercise anyway, and found a few nice turns between the chop and crust in the Kalkkögel zone behind Axamer Lizum.
We only skied from the foot of the couloir as it still looked totally filled with rocks - one brave guy who skied it solo confirmed this, pulling through the exit just as we arrived at the crack.
The area to the right is one of the most popular freeride/skitouring zones in the Kalkkögel, and was basically a mogul piste... After the last few winters everyone seems to be making the most of the snow whilst it's here where normally they'd wait until winter proper!
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Yesterday (Saturday) we went for a cruisey sunny piste day in Obergurgl, which opened on Thursday. There's lots of snow up there and piste conditions are generally very good (maybe a bit heavy on the artificial stuff in places, which can feel a bit 'aggressive' in racing parlance, or overly grippy), though the offpiste was very wind blasted. Excellent coverage on all pistes including down to the valley though.
Made a great discovery at the Nederhütte too: the Hüttenrosti is a pretty close substitute for a full English breakfast! Rosti with almost-real bacon, fried egg and bread - a happy surprise!
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Woke up this morning (Sunday) to snow out my bedroom window down here in the city at 600m, which carried on until mid-Morning. I doubt very much fell in total, but probably another 10-15cm on the hill. Looks like another few centimetres are due Monday/Tuesday, before warming up to around 10°C in the city for a couple of day then potentially more cold and snow around the 27th.
I'm not concerned about this short mild period. If anything it'll help the snow consolidate a bit offpiste, and could help avoid the formation of surface hoar/weak faceted crystals at the bottom of the snowpack which caused big avalanche problems the past two seasons.
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You know it makes sense.
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Further Snowfalls at the weekend and following week
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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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Just had an excellent 1st day in Obergurgl, getting completely out of my depth in powder. Ended up a**e-over-man-boobs quite a few times but overall it was a blast. A lot of wind blown snow around including on pistes, some from last night, with a tiny sprinkling during the day. Unfortunately, with the rising temperature it was already thickening up later in the day, so the champagne party may be over for now...
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Poster: A snowHead
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Ischgl opened on Thursday, and as Friday was my girlfriend's birthday we decided to go and check it out.
Generally the snow is in really good condition - especially on piste, where it was firm but grippy with nice piles of soft snow blown or scraped to the edges. Lower down sometimes a little harder/slicker, but generally still fun even with 114mm skis.
There's plenty of coverage on many areas offpiste (others have been totally scoured by the wind), which varied from nicely wind-buffed 'old powder' and chalk to unpleasant wind crust.
Definitely in much better shape than opening day last year, and many areas (even in the trees) should be good to go offpiste after the next storm. A good start to the season so far for sure.
On the downside, the home run is in HORRIBLE shape, and tbh I don't think it should be open. Super slick scraped down artificial snow full of too many people skiing too fast (for conditions and ability). Frankly felt like one of the most dangerous things I've ever skied.
More amusingly, Santa has started training for his Christmas marathon and it seems Rudolph has become the latest victim of automation/technology replacing labour:
Sat at home in Innsbruck atm and it looks like the next storm is blowing in... Should see snow right down to the city.
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In other news, the next issue of Fall-Line Skiing is out, including my story my a trip to Tazawako in Japan last season. Anyone who's interested can order it here: http://www.fall-line.co.uk/2018-powder-issue-on-sale-now/
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@clarky999, did you manage to meet up with @horizon who I think was also in Ischgl on Friday?
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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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@Scarlet, no unfortunately not! Would have been good to catch up with him, but we were basically on a 'ski date' for my gf's birthday.
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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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So, we didn't get quite as much snow over the weekend as I'd hoped, with more seeming to fall both east and (particularly) west of Innsbruck.
Nevertheless the local resorts did pick up another 10-20cm, and it was cold enough to snow (lightly) down to the city - had a few cm to brush off my car on Monday morning.
I had too much to do over the weekend unfortunately, but my gf went for a skitour up Axamer Lizum and reported a good 20cm of fresh snow at the top and not too many tracks going down.
There's now definitely enough snow right down to the base for them to open (the slope in the background always takes longer to open, and is on a totally different aspect to the rest of the ski area), and actually the've brought it forward a little and will start operations this Friday (Dec 1st). Given how many people are touring there it's hard to get a webcam shot without someone in it!
Kühtai also sneakily opened over the weekend, somehow without anyone seeming to realise. Elliot (Mr. www.powderinstitute.com) went up for a skitour on Sunday but was treated to private lift-served powder instead:
"Yesterday was an awesome day in the mountains! More or less private lift in Kühtai all day, with 20cm super fluffy new snow!"
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb_PmHxBWFT
With snow down to well below village level (2020m) they will have no trouble opening properly on Dec 1st as scheduled.
I did manage to get out for a skitour yesterday at Seefeld. While there was around 10cm of fresh snow this was on/around/under an unpleasant thick crust of fake snow, and some of the lower pistes were completely chopped up by piste basher caterpillar tracks; still good to get the legs and lungs in better shape though.
While the upper slopes are well covered, I think they'll need more snow to be able to open the pistes to the base (though the cannons are on full blast). They plan to open on Sat December 2nd.
 Screen Shot 2017-11-28 at 12.10.49 PM by Clarkleberry Finn, on Flickr
Nordkette is also looking in great shape, and also plans to open Dec 2 - but I'm not sure how much terrain will actually be open (it might just be the park).
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At the moment it looks like we're in line for another 20-30+ cm this week, along with some really cold weather (potentially below -10°C in the city at night) - so opening day at the resorts should be pretty great!
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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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Was in Obergurgl from Thurs - Sunday. Overall a great early season trip, even coming from California! The kids had a blast and enjoyed 1 day at Solden and 3 at Obergurgl or as my 7 yr old twins call it, Erbalygurgly 
Basically on-piste Thurs - Sat. Conditions were good. Ranged from packed powder to firm pack depending on aspect and likely exposure to wind, and ability of everyone to scrap the snow off. Great coverage on-piste everywhere. Easily can ski home everywhere at Obergurgl.
Got 10 to 15cm on Saturday night which made Sunday morning fun. Still a fair amount of rocks around the pistes as it seems like the place must have had a bunch of wind before we got there scouring much of it. Found some soft stuff and had a good morning in the small amount of fresh.
Solden was great on what was open. Gaislakogel looked like it needed a fair bit more snow. Glacier was excellent and coverage around Giggijoch is great. That area looks like it would be a nightmare with full lifts as there is a lot of capacity with not a lot runs for everyone. Great in November, not sure sure once the season kicks off. A few adventurous souls were skiing to the village, but that look decidedly ambitious...
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With a fair bit of snow overnight it only seemed right round Snowvember off with another powder ski tour today. Unfortunately it got a bit more epic than it really should have...
Started in Axamer Lizum car park, where there was probably 10+cms of really light fresh snow. Plan was essentially to skin up within the ski resort, then at the top head out ~10 mins along a ridge to a sub-peak called Axamer Kögele, where we could ski down what is essentially a non-lift accessed red piste (maybe it used to be an actual piste, not sure, but it's cut through the trees just like one) running down to Axams village - giving us another 3-400 metres of vert to ski compared to the normal car park.
Higher up there was significantly more fresh snow. Probably 30cm on average, but drifted to over 50cm in places. Some wind slab too, and in areas the top 5cm sloughed off very readily.
Only phone pictures today - too cold to mess around with cameras. Just after exiting the forest:
Elliot near the top of the mid mountain powder fields:
It was around this time the clouds started to roll in and up:
When we reached the top of the ridge and started skiing down the clouds were fully socked in and visibility was terrible. It's been a while since I last skied that zone (April 2014), and trying to work out where to go was pretty hard. Unfortunately we took a right around one clump of rock we should have gone on the left of - which lead into a serious of steep galleys and cliffs. Would have been great with visibility, but not somewhere to blunder down. We initially though we could traverse across to the left, but this just made things worse. Oops!
Wallowing in snow up to our armpits, climbing up and out was the only option. We tried with skis on packs, and skins back on skis skitouring, but in the end just had to resort to using the skis as a shelf to pull ourselves up, which took over an hour for less than 100 vertical metres.
We had everything under control, but it was still a stupid situation to get into. Just goes to show how even pretty innocuous terrain can be dangerous in bad conditions. On the plus side, by the time we'd got back up the weather was improving again.
Once we got back up to the top and on to the right line, the skiing was great. Good 30+cms of fresh powder on the higher parts, totally untracked with no one else around, for about 1000 vertical metres. Photos from a GoPro on my gimpy backpack selfie stick mount thing.
The last ~150 vertical metres into Axams (874m) got a little bit thin, so we walked the last section back to the car.
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Today was opening day for a bunch of the local resorts, and I woke up to the sound of my favourite alarm clock: avalanche bombs at Nordkette.
They got some fairly impressive results from the steeper couloirs too (not my photo):
Not a bad view to wake up to (excuse the Insta-story, forgot to save the actual photo):
As far as I'm aware, at least Axamer Lizum, Nordkette and Kühtai of the local resorts opened today. I went to Lizum for a couple of hours in the morning with friends Andy and Max before work - and wasn't disapointed!
Pistes were surprisingly firm (been blasted by snow cannons), but offpiste was just brilliant: depending on aspect anywhere from 20-40cms of powder. The majority of slopes are very shredable with most rocks well buried, though it still pays to keep an eye out. Higher and more open sections of forest are in play too, though lower down it gets a bit sketchy with rocks and logs. Very cold too, around -12°C at the top.
As I mentioned on Davidoff's avalanche thread, in places on ridge line terrain there's a bit of windslab ~5cm thick that releases pretty readily, though it's easy to identify and manage, though otherwise the snowpack seems to be shaping up well without (so far) the sort of 'old snow' problems that plagued the past couple of seasons.
Here's a few photos, again only phone shots...
Max drops in:
Andy spraying with the Inn Valley being all beautiful in the background:
My turn:
Andy finds a little airtime:
And heads on down to the trees:
Where I find a few little pillows to bounce off:
All in all, about as good an opening day as you could want!!
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The Tirolean Avalanche Commission started the daily avalanche bulletin today too. Keep an eye on it here: https://lawine.tirol.gv.at/en/home/bulletin/
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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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Couple of days in Ischgl. These really are very good early season conditions, certainly the best in the last few years.
Snow on piste is squeaky and grippy. Off piste still light. Valley runs now in much better shape than @clarky999, found last weekend.
Hazards include glide cracks and slides, rocks off piste (unfortunately seem to be better at finding them than @clarky999), too much beer at the end of the day and Krampus.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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St Anton snowy up top. 10-20cms though hard to tell as wind blowing it around a lot. Filling in pistes nicely after each lap. Plenty of cornices forming thanks to wind.
Krampus and co were out in force last night and despite a few spirited sorties by local youngsters held the high ground for much of the evening (huge bells, horns and whips gave them the edge rather).
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A good day not to be working. Blauer Himmel above the Tirol after the storm the day before. First lift full.
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You know it makes sense.
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8th powder day of the season today, and it's only December 5th!
Nordkette seemed to pick up much more snow than the other local resorts (as it often does), so I snuck out for a lap before work.
Took the funicular up from the city at 8:15 and the lift station was already full - and continued to fill (to the tune of avalanche bombs) until the cable car finally opened at 10. Most people headed straight up to the top couloirs (which looked great, other than the deep slough from from the bombs) so I went the other way and straight down to the bottom.
Being south facing (and with warming air moving in quickly) the snow had already started to consolidate - but I can't really complain!
Quick raw GoPro clip from the top section here. Skied all the way to the base at ~860m without hitting a single rock. Official stats are 44cm of new snow at the mid station (1905m).
https://vimeo.com/245893997
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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Anyone know why the resorts in/around Innsbruck seem to be struggling so much?
I thought there were generally good conditions in the Austrian Alps but it looks like even the run below the chairlift at Nordkette has yet to open, and very little is available at Axamer. Maybe there just aren't enough people around to make opening more stuff worthwhile.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Neil Neige, that's exactly what it is, the few places that are open do not have many visitors. Some places have been opening early for weekends but without hotels full of guests it cannot possibly be cost effective to open.
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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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| Neil Neige wrote: |
Anyone know why the resorts in/around Innsbruck seem to be struggling so much?
I thought there were generally good conditions in the Austrian Alps but it looks like even the run below the chairlift at Nordkette has yet to open, and very little is available at Axamer. Maybe there just aren't enough people around to make opening more stuff worthwhile. |
I wouldn't say any are struggling - quite the opposite tbh. Have you been looking today/yesterday or earlier too? Lots of lifts are shut atm due to the föhnstorm raging currently and 100kph+ winds.
Axamer Lizum has been almost fully open the last couple of weeks with top to bottom skiing since early November.
Not sure why Nordkette haven't opened the chair lift actually, but it's certainly not due to lack of snow (well, may be today after the föhn) and around a million people have skied those runs anyway - but the attraction at Nordkette is the main couloirs which have been open for a couple of weeks now (much earlier than usual) and the park. It's almost exclusively skied by locals with season passes and the short piste there is irrelevant to most. I and others have been skiing laps to the base in Hungerburg.
In fact all the local resorts have opened either on schedule or earlier, and before many 'big' resorts. Though yes, the vast majority of people skiing atm are season pass holders and I doubt there's much incentive to have every piste/lift open.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Thanks for the updates.
It's hard to know where to look for the best information - I try to find the resorts' own websites but the Nordkette one is never very clear.
Axamer seems to show only 3 or 4 lifts open but this didn't include the chair that enables you to ski back to Mutters (one of my favourite runs in the IBK area - lovely, long and remote).
Nordkette - yes the couloir runs are fun and I can just about cope but I love the red runs below the chair (the views are amazing) and that's the technical limit for some of my friends (we're coming out on Fri).
Looks like Patscherkopfl isn't opening until the following weekend. Schlick is open though.
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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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@Neil Neige, yep the old Birgitzköpfel chair is always one of the last lifts to open as the slope it goes over generally needs more snow to be skiable. Have you tried the run down to Axams on the other side too? Designated a ski route rather than a piste but still mellow and excellent on a powder day.
Some of the lifts at the extremities of the resort (and the beginner drag lifts) haven't opened yet, but probably 95% of the ski area can be skied from those that are open, and I'm pretty sure the remainder will open before Christmas. They've also started building the park if that's of interest.
Looks like there should be plenty more fresh snow this week/weekend to heal any damage the Föhn does to the snow too!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| clarky999 wrote: |
@Neil Neige, yep the old Birgitzköpfel chair is always one of the last lifts to open as the slope it goes over generally needs more snow to be skiable. Have you tried the run down to Axams on the other side too? Designated a ski route rather than a piste but still mellow and excellent on a powder day.
Some of the lifts at the extremities of the resort (and the beginner drag lifts) haven't opened yet, but probably 95% of the ski area can be skied from those that are open, and I'm pretty sure the remainder will open before Christmas. They've also started building the park if that's of interest.
Looks like there should be plenty more fresh snow this week/weekend to heal any damage the Föhn does to the snow too! |
Yep, have done the Axams run a couple of times. It's a beauty and a nice Italian restaurant (I think?) at the bottom. Bit of a pain getting back from though. We tried to use the local drag lift at the bottom once and were told we needed a separate lift pass.
Thanks for the Birgitzkopfel info. Makes sense as the run beneath it has always seemed a bit bare even when open. Shame they can't open it as an access lift for the run to Mutters as presumably that holds its snow a lot better. Looks like Mutters is still closed, maybe opening this w/e.
I thought all the IBK resorts were normally open by now. Maybe last year's poor start to the season made them push the dates back by a couple of weeks.
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Not sure how much damage the föhn did yesterday as the clouds are completely socked in again. It started raining pretty heavily last night, but I think the temperature was already dropping by the time it started. Looks like snow fell down to around 900-1000m anyway, and local resorts are reporting 5-15cm of new snow.
Further south in the main alpine ridge - for example around Stubaier Glacier and Obergurgl - 50 to 75cm of snow fell at altitude.
Avalanche danger rose to high in places (particularly in southerly regions), and is towards the upper end of considerable in others: https://lawine.tirol.gv.at/en/home/bulletin/
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| Heavy snowfall, combined with storm-strength winds, have spiked avalanche danger levels. Along the Main Alpine Ridge the danger level is HIGH from region to region; in the other parts of Tirol it is CONSIDERABLE over widespread areas. The main hazard stems from fresh, but also from somewhat older, snowdrift accumulations. They are inadequately bonded with the snow base beneath them, and can be triggered by minimum additional loading. In addition, loose-snow and slab avalanches can be expected to trigger naturally, in isolated cases these releases can even place exposed transportation routes at risk. Below 2400 m, gliding and wet-snow avalanches are a hazard, they can trigger by themselves. As temperatures drop, the danger of wet-snow avalanches will gradually diminish. |
Patrick Ribis, a guide from Stubaital, describes it as "the first proper serious avalanche situation this winter, which won't stabilise until the end of the week at the earliest."
Still raining in the city now, almost snowing at Hungerburg (860m). More snow due later in the week too so hopefully yesterday won't have been too much of a set back.
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@Neil Neige, I think there is a pizza place close to the bottom of it. The best way back is the bus - cut left when the slope reaches the fields and the bus stop is right there. If you have ski kit should be free either back up to Lizum or down to the city.
Yep most of the resorts open during the first week of December - and the main ones (Axamer, Seefeld, Nordkette, Kühtai, and I think Shlick) did open on the 1st.
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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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Currently DUMPING in Innsbruck!
I woke up at 8, and it got progressively darker and more Mordor-like from then until 9 when it started raining.
Just looked out the window half an hour ago to see the rain had turned to the heaviest snow we've had to the city so far this winter!
However last night the wind was VICIOUS and there will certainly have been a lot more widespread snow transport in the mountains. This now snow will further hide the newly developed drifts and wind slabs. Avalanche danger is 'considerable' and safe skiing requires caution as danger zones will be hard to spot. Stick to the trees and low angle slopes at least until after the weekend would be my advice if going offpiste.
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In other news, a little project I've been working on is finally live and I'd love it if you can take a look: https://bamwoo-bamboo.com
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Well today was just a nightmare!
Plan was to get a couple of laps in before work in the morning with my buddy max. We took the Hungerburgbahn up from the city to Nordkette, but literally just as we got out the top they announced avalanche control would be at least another 1.5 hours... No time for that, so straight back down to the city to get the car and drive up to Axamer Lizum.
The sun was just coming out as we arrived at 9:30, surprisingly not too many people around, and about 30cm of slightly wind pressed new snow. We went straight up the chairlift with the aim to just grab a few laps out through the trees the forest road and back to the lifts. Which is where everything went horribly wrong...
...I almost had to cross someone else's track 🤮
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