 Poster: A snowHead
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One thing I have not seen much mentioned in ski forums is the great increase in growth of brushwood (mostly larch I think) in off piste gulleys, below or just above the tree line. This is gradually blocking many traditionaloff-piste routes. I have talked to several guides in different European resorts and all agree it is happening. One, when I apologised for breaking some stems in trying to get through, said " "break as many as you can, if I had the time I'd come up in summer and cut a way through', or words to that effect.
The consensus seemed to be that it was Global Warming (reduced snow cover melting away earlier and allowing trees to grow where they couldn't before).
I don't know if it is happening in North America, though.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It's not just off-piste. In La Rosiere it grows on the piste, the red down through the trees. It was full of little christmas trees the day we first skied it (first day of the 2004/2005 season). It was a very different experience.
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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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snowball, haven't notices it much in Utah, but then again it would need to get reasonably tall before it would become an issue...
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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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cant they just cut it all down in october or something if its a problem..?
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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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Ski the trees...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Why don't they spray them with herbicide?
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David Murdoch, yes, I'm far more likely to get tripped up by undergrowth than dash my head in a rocky couloir...
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Breed more beavers.
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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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Masque. Nice... 
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David Murdoch, I said more ... not with 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Often, now, it is so thick you just cannot find a place you can get through, let alone ski through (and much of it is more like densely packed saplings than brushwood).
The trouble with a herbicide that would kill small trees - it kills everything else as well - wildflowers, grass etc (and washes down in these gulley streams to other areas below). An arrid, eroding gulley would not be nice.
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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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Depending on altitude, many of the currently open pasture areas in the Alps used to be densely wooded and they were cleared, laboriously, for agriculture. They didn't stay clear naturally. There is an open air museum near here, in the Beaufortain, in an area which was marginal for agriculture (wrong side of the valley, not much sun) but was cleared, and then when people gave up farming the land was depopulated and the forest took over, astonishingly quickly. Maybe that is what is happening in some areas, and only if new tree growth is deliberately cleared, will the pasture remain. In high rocky gullies that can't be the answer though, I don't think those would have been cleared for agriculture?
We all need to buy loads of local cheese and eat fondues, to create demand for milk, to keep the cows on the pasture.... and come back in summer and do more of the same.
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pam w, don't goats rather than cows, like tender young saplings and clambering around gullies? I think it will probably be a mixture or combination of causes from changes in agriculture, alpen lifestyle and weather.
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You know it makes sense.
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Masque, I read in 'Nature' that they have been breeding cows which have goat genes for nimbleness inserted in to their DNA. The idea being that they will be able to take advantage of the tender shoots often found in gullies. They are also trying this with giraffes 
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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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halfhand, and the young are always born on a certain day of the year.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Well, it sounds like a good idea (the gow, not the caffe - these aren't high trees needing trimming). The sheep with legs longer on one side than the other certainly caught on.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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There were loads of non-descript animals in the herds in Kuwait. We always called 'em shoats - 1/2 way between a sheep and a goat.
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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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Stuff like this is what I was talking about (though it isn't in a gulley here.) I'm just wondering how to get through the next bit. (after a difficult few feet I found a narrow alley for about 50 yards through the new growth (all looking, you notice, about the same age).
Other pictures from last year in Val Cenis just added to a thread in "Trips".
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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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I noticed hillwalking/scrambling in the Lake District, last year that there was a lot of dense bracken appearing in gullies. Using an old guidebook to do something off the well-trodden, it rapidly became apparent that what used to be easy-going sections (according to the book) had turned into hard work. I put it down to changing farming patterns, as sheep-farming became less economic. Maybe this is part of the same thing?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Nick Zotov, A sismilar situation exists in the New Forest where once acres were set on fire and contolled burning took place. I think it may be banned under the same rules that stops farmers burning wheat stubble.
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Nick Zotov, the Malvern hills are (were) similarly affected for the same reason. I think they've re-started grazing there to keep them clear (but could be wrong).
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Yes, quite sizeable sections of the Malvern hills now have temporary fencing installed and sheep grazing within to stop them becoming covered with trees again.
In Silver Star in Canada last summer they bought a 'summer grooming machine'. This is apparently a piste-basher(?) attachment with horizontal and vertical cutters which can cut through branches up to (IIRC) 6" in diamater: takes out all the brushwood and small trees growing on the piste, and trims any encroaching branches of trees on the side of the piste as well.
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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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People seem to forget that England was for millennia, one HUGE forest and so was the Iberian peninsular
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Boredsurfin
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A sismilar situation exists in the New Forest where once acres were set on fire and contolled burning took place. I think it may be banned under the same rules that stops farmers burning wheat stubble
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They still do, & its amazing how quickly the stuff regenerates!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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geri, Oh! I thought I had read somewhere that since becoming a National Park they weren't allowed to do it and the Forest Verderers were all upset. 
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