 Poster: A snowHead
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Where the best place to get snow fall \ snow depth stats for France or Austria?
I'm trying to assess different resorts levels averaged over a resonable period of time. Most of the resort web sites only have rather vague and from being there rather inacurate info. Thanks.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The only one I know of is the ski club of great britain. You used to have to register, dunno if you can still access the graphs though.
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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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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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The Courchevel site is really interesting as what it shows is that there is no pattern to snowfall whatsoever.
I am thinking of going there in March and was very interested to note the heavy snowfall in March this year - early February this year was somewhat lacking as I found out - but if you look at March in prior years it is very different.
All in all, I think it just proves that you take your chances when it comes to snowfall! 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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As far as the Alps go, it mainly depends on synoptics as to which week would be best, and there really is little way of predicting those more than a week or few in advance (long term trends etc. are a different matter).
If you want predictability, try Yakutsk. 
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I have always wanted to know how they measure snow depths. We usually get figures for upper and lower slopes. Do they just measure the same place every day? How do they compensate for drifting etc?
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A Danish mate reckoned they did it on rooftops. 
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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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johnboy, I've seen measuring boards in fairly open (to the elements) roped off areas.
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laundryman,
Surley the figures we see are compacted snow?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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fraserp, See http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=10016
Approach with caution, some resorts lie, others don't update their stats for weeks, and as many people have pointed out, there's no standard for measurement.
Some dilemmas, Imagine you're the head of the tourist office, what do you report when:
1. On one of your lower south facing slopes, bare spots are appearing, and the depth is around 10cm on the run off. However just below the mid station on a lower north facing run you can stick in a pole and get 90cm. What do you report for your lower slope depth?
2. You know that a resort 10 miles down the valley haven't updated their website, or their feed up to other websites for 3 weeks, and are reporting 60cm on their lower slopes when in fact they are getting bare and rocky. They actually have around 10-20cm, as do you, but you're losing business unfairly. What do you report?
3. You have devised a standard for depth reporting, taking the average of 10 fixed depth markers alongside a particular piste. Overnight, it dumps 30cm, but blows off your measurement piste to stack beautiful powder over neighbouring pistes. Do you report the same depth as yesterday with 30cm fresh, or change your standard?
etc
etc
etc
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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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JimiHendrix,
All fair points
Looking at the teletext report for Zell am See the have 0cm on lower slopes, but report that resort runs are slushy. How can they be slushy if there is 0cm????
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johnboy,
I don't know but it could be that they are honest and mark depths of natural snow and there is only artificial to the resort. Just a guess though.
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You know it makes sense.
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| T Bar wrote: |
johnboy,
I don't know but it could be that they are honest and mark depths of natural snow and there is only artificial to the resort. Just a guess though. |
My recollection is that there are cannons down to the resort, so you are probably correct.
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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 really wouldn't want to be skiing the resort run this week. It was like porridge when I left on 18th March
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Poster: A snowHead
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johnboy, I was told in La Rosiere last week, that the resort had had 12metres of snowfalls in total this season and that had compacted down to a depth of 4 metres. I would guess that that measurement would have been taken at the top of the Roches Noires chairlift which is the highest point in the domain.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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David@traxvax,
How would that compare with average?
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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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johnboy, the place I have in mind is near the top of the Côte 2000 chair in Megève, which is one of the places that snow depth is reported on their web site. The stick is definitely in an uncompacted (at least, not artificially compacted) spot, and I've not noticed any other measuring device in the vicinity - and I go there quite a lot!
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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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i'm with laundryman, on the un artifically compacted measurements.
I spotted a number of measuring boards this year, and in a nerdy moment checked they agreed with the resort's website (they did). They were all at least 10 yards off piste so snow was compacted by it's own weight only and seemingly placed for optimum depth.
If this wasn't the case, when reported snow depths jump 50cm after a dump, you'd literally be skiing on another level on piste the next day which I've never noticed.
This is based on Austria by the way.
I also went to Sweden (Are) this year, where the reported snow depths bore absolutely no relation to reality when I was there, or judging on webcams, for the rest of the season either. Not necessarily too high or low, just apparently random numbers!
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