 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 worth a look. So sad.
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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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blimey! Is that the end of the glacier for ever, or could 10 years of decent winter snow recover it?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Apos for being chauvinistic but I just wish more pretty girls would ski in hot pants and bikinis!
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
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David Murdoch, taken in the early hedonistic seventies, aren't we so much more cynical these days? 
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Can't believe how the climate is changing so much.Will it recover ?
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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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AndAnotherThing.., living on top of a hill probably had more to do with defending yourself against marauding picts than being a nice warm place to be.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Climates change, that is a fact how much we are responsible and how much is down to natural cycles is still debatable.
What will they call it when we head into the next ice age ? ( do not think global warming quite fits ).
re living on a hill in Britian well we had a lot more forested areas and marsh areas to contend with as well as other hostile tribes, it was more an age of "give me your wife, sheep and pigs or else ", than " Friends Romans countrymen lend me your ears".
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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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Agree the length of the Sarenne run is vastly overestimated - we measured 8km to the Chalvet lift, can't be more than a further 2km to AlpAuris
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You know it makes sense.
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It’s really useful to see these images and time sequences. I did not think that I would see in my lifetime the massive reduction of the Alpine ice and snowfields. Yes, we’ve had some great years skiing - 2010-11, 2017-18, this season...but the long term changes are easy to see and easy to trace. The global stats show 90pc of glaciers shrinking and a handful accumulating (Greenland data is particularly controversial). But my ‘micro experience’ is that there has been rapid and massive change in dozens of places where we climbed in the 1990’s (Flaine, Chamonix valley) and which had snowfields all over the place in the Summer (vast majority gone), had small icefields (vanished), and North face bound by ice (regrettably now rock chutes everywhere). What were quick neve sections - eg up to the Bertol Hut at 3111m - are now acres of balanced, shattered moraine - slow and dangerous. I don’t know the answer to the question ‘how quickly and is it possible for these glaciers to re-accumulate?...’ but I suspect it needs constant air temp below freezing, plus higher snowfall. Which we are not getting anymore, that’s for sure....
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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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What is interesting is that in early 2000 the Sarenne was predicted to disappear by 2050, now they say gone by 2025. This seeming acceleration has got experts into a tizzy about the rate of global warming. The former French environment minister, Nicolas Hulot, even had a nervous breakdown over it all.
Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Mon 29-04-19 11:03; edited 1 time in total
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Poster: A snowHead
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It really illustrates how much change there has been yet people still deny that climate change is happening. None so blind as those who won’t see.z
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@DidierCouch & @davidof re length of runs - all ski areas add in a 'fudge factor' when calculating the published length of a ski run - apparently to take into account the fact that (most) skiers don't ski down in a straight line but make turns... It is all a complete con as there is no 'standard fudge factor' so each resort can decide by how much it multiplies the 'straight line length' to get its 'skier's length'...
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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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there is no doubt we are in a period of global warming, but it wont last, lets not forget we have also had several ice ages, the next one could be just around the corner, obviously not in our lifetime, but when it comes people will be complaining of global cooling.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I started summer alpine mountaineering back in 1981, and the nature of many routes has changed out of all recognition since then, glacier crossings and snowy ridges are now unstable moraine fields, and shattered rocky ribs. The change has been huge. I used to read books of the "Golden Age" of alpine mountaineering - basically the Victorian era, and the photos and reports from then again showed huge differences between then and the 1980s. My understanding is though, that the retreat of the glaciers has been going on since the "little ice age" in the 1600's. Large masses of ice take a very long time to melt, so while they built up during a cold spell, they have only slowly melted when actually the climate was already too warm to sustain them. The rate of melting has increased, partly due to increased temperatures, but also due to the fact that a smaller mass of ice is more prone to melting than a large mass, so ever more is lost each summer. Even if we were to stop global warming now, or even reverse it to 1980s levels most of the alpine glaciers would still melt, as it has been too warm to sustain them for ever for a great many decades.
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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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| compostcorner wrote: |
| there is no doubt we are in a period of global warming, but it wont last |
Are you a mate of Trump?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Layne wrote: |
| ... Are you a mate of Trump? |
I don't think he has mates, just people who are worse educated and more stupid than he is who don't mind being taken for fools.
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@RobinS this makes sense as the temperature difference between now and the 1980s can’t be the only explanation for the extent of the retreat of the Kitzsteinhorn glacier.
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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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| Claude B wrote: |
I skied the Sarenne several times this winter. I seem to remember Ski Tracks showing 15km, I'll check. |
You must do a lot of traversing 
I never manage more than 10km from top to the Auris lift. About 1700m of vertical, not the 2000+ advertised either.
The "glacier" last opened in the summer in 2012; prior to that it was 2007, not sure it opened in between those dates.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I didn't realise it had opened that recently. Memory going 
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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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I was also at La Grave last August, it doesn't look too great up there either
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You know it makes sense.
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| davidof wrote: |
| I think you can get 2000m + in ADH by skiing from the Pic Blanc to Oz via the Fare... but I've never skied at ADH when the Fare is open so I've never tried this but it looks fun and more of a challenge than the Sarenne. |
To Vaujany not Oz. And yes it's a great ski. But yes Fare is closed a fair amount.
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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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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Do you not need a lift after Le Tunnel to get to La Fare?
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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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@DidierCouch, I think one of the bottom branches of Le Tunnel takes you onto the bottom of Le Dome. Haven’t done it in ages though
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Arno wrote: |
| @DidierCouch, I think one of the bottom branches of Le Tunnel takes you onto the bottom of Le Dome. Haven’t done it in ages though |
right branch but as you say, you only get to the top of the DMC.
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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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| Layne wrote: |
| davidof wrote: |
| I think you can get 2000m + in ADH by skiing from the Pic Blanc to Oz via the Fare... but I've never skied at ADH when the Fare is open so I've never tried this but it looks fun and more of a challenge than the Sarenne. |
To Vaujany not Oz. And yes it's a great ski. But yes Fare is closed a fair amount. |
a cool, even better, next year maybe.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@davidof, then you take Rousses over to Alpette and carry on to the top of La Fare
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Another great off piste route is from the top ending up in Clavans Le Haut where there is a cracking auberge (you have to leave a car there), and always good for when tackling the Col de Sarenne on a bike especially if you've done ADH first
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@davidof,
You used to be able to get a little certificate from SATA if you did this in a day :-
Le Pic Blanc 3330m to La Villette 1295m
Le Pic Blanc 3330m to L’Enversin d’Oz 1125m
Le Pic Blanc 3330m to Oz en Oisans 1350m
Le Pic Blanc 3330m to Gorges de Sarenne 1510m
They charged you a euro and donated it to a Nepalese (I think) charity because at 8000m you had near enough skied down the height of Everest. My kids have, or probably by now have not, got the cards somewhere. The skiing is no problem on a good day, the issue is the queue for the cable car.....
The little chairlift back up from the end of the Tunnel run is ignored (ie you can use it under the french rule bending principle) 
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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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You keep right on the tunnel after the steep bit and you miss the little chair lift by the lake. Unfortunately it is a bit flat and stops me from doing the whole thing in a oner on my snowboard.
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| valais2 wrote: |
| It’s really useful to see these images and time sequences. I did not think that I would see in my lifetime the massive reduction of the Alpine ice and snowfields. Yes, we’ve had some great years skiing - 2010-11, 2017-18, this season...but the long term changes are easy to see and easy to trace. The global stats show 90pc of glaciers shrinking and a handful accumulating (Greenland data is particularly controversial). But my ‘micro experience’ is that there has been rapid and massive change in dozens of places where we climbed in the 1990’s (Flaine, Chamonix valley) and which had snowfields all over the place in the Summer (vast majority gone), had small icefields (vanished), and North face bound by ice (regrettably now rock chutes everywhere). What were quick neve sections - eg up to the Bertol Hut at 3111m - are now acres of balanced, shattered moraine - slow and dangerous. I don’t know the answer to the question ‘how quickly and is it possible for these glaciers to re-accumulate?...’ but I suspect it needs constant air temp below freezing, plus higher snowfall. Which we are not getting anymore, that’s for sure.... |
Seen millions of glacier-shrinkage photos, but they are always shocking to see.
The world has been warming and melting for the past ~15k years.
NY and London were once buried under a glacier.
Up until the 1900s, it was still possible for adults to skate (almost) every year on the iced-over London Thames.
Up until the 1960s, it was still possible for adults to skate (very) occasionally on the iced-over London Thames.
The first sniff of (massively) accelerated global warming came in the 1970s and 1980s, then really took off in the 1990s.
By the 2000s and 2010s, global boiling is taking off.
Everything is melting.
The South Pole and Everest peak will be the last to melt, around 2500.
To reglaciate properly takes decades or centuries.
The (small) ADH glacier, based on current snowfalls, would take 5-20 years (of yearround freezing) to rebuild a summer snowfield, and 50-100 years to rebulk summer ice to 1980s levels.
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FAQ
I know from looking across that every year it's been significantly worse for the last 6-10. I had no idea though, that it had ever been THAT snowy. 
