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!)

Ski Resorts then and now
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

@patrick!, thanks. I have read a lot of Balzac but not that one
snow report
snow report
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

@davidof, Nice, though I think he has the wrong skis for the conditions (Soul 7 HD) Very Happy Very Happy
snow conditions
snow conditions
 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?

Claude B wrote:
@davidof, I love this story, if true.

Quote:
German mountain troops on the move, March '44
On the 14th a detachment of German mountain troops were dispatched to l’Alpe d’Huez looking for members of the resistance. All the men in the village were lined up outside Grand Hotel and questionned. The commander Schegel showed them a paper “I have an order to shoot you all and burn l’Alpe d’Huez to the ground, but I don’t want to harm this ski resort, in an hour I will be gone”. Later rumours reached the resort that the Commandant had been shot at Vizille for disobeying orders but in 1951 he was back at the resort as part of the Austrian bobsleigh team competing in the world championships.


I looked into this a bit more, Paul Vieux-Pernon said he was amongst the men stopped by Schlegel and Georges Rajon met him in 1951. The Vieux-Pernons are a big Oisans family.

The tourist board has been looking into the story, if you are over at l'Alpe it could be worth popping in and seeing if they were able to trace this Commandant Schlegel.
snow conditions
snow conditions
 You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.

@davidof, hopefully I'll be over there later this month. I'll look.


Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Mon 27-04-20 14:12; edited 1 time in total
ski holidays
ski holidays
 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Here's Chamrousse around the start of the 20th century



the mountain at the back on the left is the Brouffier and on the right its la Grande Serre. The ski tourer is in the Roche Beranger area.
latest report
latest report
 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.

The Allevard ski club touring, possibly 1950s. Note the ropes rather than climbing skins. Probably in the Belledonne.

snow report
snow report
 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I've been hunting down old photos and found a few.

From near where the resort entrance is now, 1950s.


Venosc end, 1950s again I think. Large building is UNCM (now UCPA) which was built about 1950. What is now Place de Venosc would be in front of it.


I found an old brochure including this piste map online. It was labelled as 1975 but I think it's far earlier, about 1969. Until 1971 we topped out at 2450m. I found this statement on the brochure highly amusing "Thanks to a Mediterranean climate winter fog and mist are unknown at Les Deux Alpes" Laughing
snow report
snow 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!

Old, wooden skilift in Eastern Canada in 1965.

snow report
snow 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.

Pre ski resort days and WW2 I think



The glacier on the Muzelle far larger than in the summer now.
snow conditions
snow conditions
 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads



Étienne Livacic and his clients at l'Alpe d'Huez sometime in the 1940s. Skitouring, in the background la Muzelle.

High Mountain Guide and skier. In 1945 he set up the Alpe d’Huez section of the ski instructors federation and helped create the Syndicat des moniteurs du ski français. He had Medal #11 of the ESF. He died aged 36 during a descent of the aiguille Ravanel on the 1st August 1948 after being hit by stonefall. A porter and two clients escaped. He is buried in the new cemetery at Chamonix.
ski holidays
ski holidays
 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

This is awesome. Well done everyone Very Happy
ski holidays
ski holidays
 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.

I've accumulated quite a collection of old photographs, generally old postcards. Interesting to delve into the past.

This is from the late 40s I think. Generally just old buildings which had been there for many years when it was just the grazing pasture for Venosc. The first big building this end was the UCPA built in 1952 and enlarged in the mid 60s. Chalet Mounier is there too. Opened as a refuge in 1879 it became a small hotel in 1933. Now vastly different it is 4* with a Michelin 1* restaurant. Paul Michel was a well known local photographer who died about 20 years ago. Many of those old buildings are still here in various guises.


This is from about 1953. Téléski de Pied Moutet which opened in 1950. The small building at the bottom is actually Hotel Edelweiss which was built on stilts because it was marshy at that time. It opened in 1952 with just 4 bedrooms, again still there but vastly different.


This is quite an interesting article in french about "the first mountain aerodrome" (I'm sure there are many others claiming that) opened here in 1945.
https://www.anciens-aerodromes.com/?p=32815
ski holidays
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

It appears St Anton was a well known resort in 1931. For some amazing skiing filmed there see


http://youtube.com/v/QSYrvA59F5M
snow report
snow report
 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.

^ Good watch.

Ice skating had been a Summer Olympics sport since 1908. Ice hockey since 1920. The first Winter Olympics with skiing started in 1924.

By the 1930s, despite cr*p skis and clothing, skiing was growing fast among the rich 10% near the European Alps.

Only WW2 in the 1940s slowed its growth.
snow report
snow report



Terms and conditions  Privacy Policy