 Poster: A snowHead
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Does bashing the snow help preserve it for later in the season?
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yes
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I have seen them bashing Prorel (Briançon) quite regularly.
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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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| hold_my_biere wrote: |
| Does bashing the snow help preserve it for later in the season? |
Definitely, compacted snow lasts away longer into the season.......
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Some of it will also be to prevent slide's. There have been a number of avalanches set off accidentally in Courchevel and Meribel in the past couple of week's resulting in the resorts closing the entire area for a few hours on some mornings to make safe.
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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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Saw an interesting article on the news the other day. Finland are collecting the snow, compacting it into piles and covering it to stop it melting, and hoping to extend the season well into the summer, when everyone can travel.
They only expect to lose 5-10% of what they collect.
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| brianatab wrote: |
Saw an interesting article on the news the other day. Finland are collecting the snow, compacting it into piles and covering it to stop it melting, and hoping to extend the season well into the summer, when everyone can travel.
They only expect to lose 5-10% of what they collect. |
Ruka resort stores snow over the summer, under cover, and then spreads it on one (non-glacier) piste and aim to ski from early October every year.
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@brianatab, Tignes stored snow to use on the top part of Double-M for the French teams to train on this autumn.
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@hold_my_biere, very much so.
Given Brev’s aspect, and the amount of snow we have had, it’s possible they just want it compacted for later.
Or driver training.
Or bored drivers.
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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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I shut the blinds quite early in the evening to keep the heat it, only letting them up a little to let the dogs out.
Open them this morning and they've been busy in front of me 
We often skin/ski the pistes pre-season and you'd be amazed at how much prep has to take place, they have a lot of drainage gulleys (well at least here) criss-crossing the piste and these all obviously have to be filled in along with any streams etc
And like I said after every pre-season snow-fall they'll bash that to compact it down.
Currently, we have numerous mounds of snow-canon snow which they'll use near the time, and that really lasts way beyond the end of the season as that artificial snow does not really have any structure so once bashed down there's no air flow between the crystals etc
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Is there some sort of decision today? I thought it was tomorrow but friends saying today?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| brianatab wrote: |
Saw an interesting article on the news the other day. Finland are collecting the snow, compacting it into piles and covering it to stop it melting, and hoping to extend the season well into the summer, when everyone can travel.
They only expect to lose 5-10% of what they collect. |
lots of resorts do snow farming
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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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Commune has just posted this.
RENCONTRE AVEC LE PRÉFET DE L'ISÈRE
Suite à une sollicitation de Christophe Aubert, Maire des Deux Alpes, et de Jean Yves Noiret, Maire de l'Alpe d'Huez, le préfet de l'Isère a organisé le 5 janvier 2021 une réunion à laquelle participaient nos 2 maires, accompagnés de Jean Luc Boch, Président des maires de Montagne, Gilles Chabert, conseiller à la Montagne de la Région, les Présidents des Communautés de Communes de Montagne de l'Isère, et plusieurs parlementaires du département.
L'objectif de cette réunion était de recueillir la position et les attentes des stations face à la promesse d'une ouverture des remontées mécaniques le 7 janvier prochain faite par le 1er ministre.
Notre maire a insisté sur l'importance vitale pour nos montagnes de cette ouverture rapide afin de relancer notre activité, mais aussi préparer et commercialiser les vacances de février et le reste de la saison.
En complément, l'ensemble des participants a rappelé au préfet la nécessité d'une meilleure prise en compte de la situation des entreprises dans les aides gouvernementales et d'une 'régionalisation' des prises de décision pour coller au mieux aux besoins des territoires et à la situation épidémique locale.
Ces échanges ont permis d'exprimer notre incompréhension totale face aux mesures prises jusqu'à présent, et d'insister sur les conséquences économiques et sociales désastreuses qu'elles engendrent dans toutes nos communes.
Le préfet s'est engagé à faire remonter ces informations au 1er ministre dans la perspective des annonces qui vont être faites en fin de semaine. Il a indiqué toutefois que le gouvernement envisagerait d'attendre 10 jours après les vacances de fin d'année afin de mesurer précisément l'impact de celles-ci sur les niveaux de contamination avant de prendre une décision sur l'ouverture, qui se situerait alors entre le 16 et le 20 janvier 2021
Decision between 16th and 20th January
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Had to charge my camera up to take a decent zoomed in shot. Looks like piste is bashed but not groomed, so will be nice boiler plate with these cold temps.
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You know it makes sense.
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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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Thats shocking
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Poster: A snowHead
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Quite possibly getting over there before Brexit kicked in so they would be legal to work this winter season if there was to be one.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Interesting. "The infected people are part of a group of 26 students of British origin who all presented a negative PCR test on their arrival in France."
Pretty sure France has no Q requirement and no further test needed - as was the case with us in Dec.
Caught locally?? Or a long incubation period in one of them from UK depending on when they arrived??
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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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@colinstone, quarantine demanded "a l'honneur" so not enforced
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| under a new name wrote: |
| @colinstone, quarantine demanded "a l'honneur" so not enforced |
......
Perhaps some people have no "l'honneur"..... 
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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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| under a new name wrote: |
| @colinstone, quarantine demanded "a l'honneur" so not enforced |
Although this seems like a quaint concept to the British, I understand that there are quite steep penalties under French law for breaking an ""attestation sur l'honneur". Will be an interesting one to follow.
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Perhaps they caught it there but much easier to make a sensationalist headline than find the truth.
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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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| colinstone wrote: |
... "The infected people are part of a grou who all presented a negative PCR test on their arrival in France."
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When did France start requiring PCR test on entry? Just curious if that gives a clue to when they arrived.
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You also need to take a PCR test after your 7 days self isolation. None of this, including entry into France, is controlled properly though. For entry into France you can wave any old bit of paper. There are no controls from EU states - so people have flown Brazil -> Frankfort -> France without any control on entry. Total fuckwittery by the French govt. If we want to go to Italy there are controls but as Macron is an Eurotaliban he won't hear of it in the other direction despite medical advice to reduce movement as much as is economically possible.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Be interested to learn the full facts before judgement.
We have no info of when they arrived, if they quarantined, or what they have been doing there since arrival.
However, IF they arrived before Brexit, they would have been there 3 weeks. Plenty of time to quarantine, and then get infected locally.
The fact that they are British does not mean that they have recently been home, or broken any travel rules. It is possible that one or all of them got infected locally, and it spread through the party.
Maybe the proximity of the Swiss border is a factor?
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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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| brianatab wrote: |
Maybe the proximity of the Swiss border is a factor? |
quite possible they contracted it locally.
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| adithorp wrote: |
| colinstone wrote: |
... "The infected people are part of a grou who all presented a negative PCR test on their arrival in France."
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When did France start requiring PCR test on entry? Just curious if that gives a clue to when they arrived. |
PCR tests were required in Christmas week and from then onwards. Only French/Eu nationals were allowed to enter from that time on too. Unless this group were travelling in an exempt category I can't see how any British citizen would have been able to travel to France since Christmas week.
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You know it makes sense.
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There were plenty of British allowed entry on the run up to the B-word if they were establishing residency under the withdrawal agreement as long as they had negative tests.
France has announced today that PCR tests will be required for people entering from EU countries too from Sunday
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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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From the DM
Can't blame the locals for being upset with them. Should have stayed in UK.
A group of 26 British skiers is in isolation in a French resort after 16 tested positive for Covid.
Villagers in the tiny commune of Vallorcine, in the Chamonix Valley, have branded the party 'irresponsible' for escaping UK lockdown to go skiing.
The Brits, described as gap-year students who paid £8,900 each for the ten-week ski course, arrived in France by road, air or train between January 13 and 17.
Some were delayed after they were stopped from boarding a Eurostar train at London St Pancras in breach of coronavirus restrictions and were forced to find other means of travel or forgo the trip.
The students, mostly aged 18 to 20 years old, were booked on a British Association of Snowsport Instructors course with Peak Leaders in Verbier, Switzerland.
But due to a ban on people entering Switzerland from the UK, organisers claimed to have found a legal loophole and arranged instead for the group to travel to France.
The plan was for the party to spend the first 10 days in Vallorcine, a hamlet of 400 people near Chamonix that sits on the French-Swiss border, to remove the need to quarantine on arrival in Switzerland.
However on Tuesday one of the students 'felt a bit tired and run-down' and had a Covid test which proved positive.
The rest of the group was tested the following day.
By Thursday evening 16 had tested positive, nine were negative and one result was inconclusive.
Despite the ski lifts being closed indefinitely in France, the resort's accommodation is open, as are the shops. Bars and restaurants are open for take-away service and there is a strict curfew from 6pm to 6am.
However, across the border in Switzerland the ski lifts are open for business despite rising numbers of infections.
The Brits are staying at the four-star Dormio Resort in Vallorcine. The 14 members of staff are waiting for results of their tests.
One villager, who declined to be named, said the inhabitants in the tight-knit community were 'not pleased'.
He said: 'Anyone who has been near these people are being tested.
'People are worried, especially if it's this new British variant of the virus. Only 400 people live here and suddenly we've got 16 cases.
'Was this really essential travel? They seem to have used a loophole to escape Lockdown in the UK and travel down through France where they can wait out their time until they can then go to Switzerland to ski.
'They couldn't fly to Switzerland so came here instead. Our lifts are closed here in France so it's even more infuriating that they have used our village as a stop-over. It's irresponsible. People here are not pleased.'
Guy Ordway, a partner of Peak Leaders in Verbier, defended the nature of the trip.
He said: 'It's important that people can continue to get qualifications. We have followed the rules to the letter. At no point has it been an exercise in cheating the system. It's very unfortunate.
'Skiing is considered an exclusive, luxury sport and for some it's hard to imagine it is a qualification. But this is exactly what these students are doing. It's part of their education. They are not breaching any rules.
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Poster: A snowHead
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There are no words for these people.
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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 organisers are more at fault imo than impressionable youngster. It seems very much "cheating the system" to me, to use their words.
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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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Lots of unanswered questions.
When was this course organised?
The Swiss allowed it to go ahead - why?
Did they take tests before travel?
Were the rules for entry into France followed, and if not, why were they allowed through Customs?
Also, not only the Students and organisers at fault.
Non of the locals seem to be allocating any blame to the Hotel.
The arrangements for this trip appear to have been changed at the last minute. Therefore, it must have been a very recent booking.
Who took the booking, presumably knowing they were British. (If not, then they would have known on arrival).
Did they (should they have?) report their presence to the local authorities?
Did nobody enquire about quarantine?
They have been in resort for nearly a week. Presumably, bars and takeaways served them? or were they just happy for the business?
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If this is the same group who were stopped from boarding Eurostar by the French authorities, then I was pretty sure that someone connected to them came on to defend / clarify them at the time.
I was looking for their post last night, when I suspected the two stories might prove to be linked, but couldn't find who it was on here or what it was they said.
Anyone else able to?
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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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@brianatab, there isn't a great deal in Vallorcine. Maybe 2 bars at most and one restaurant. France has been on lockdown and curfew at 18:00. Certainly no restaurants or bars would have been open to serve them. My experience of Vallorcine is that the 2 sleepy bars there are closed most of the time anyway, even before Covid existed.
Looks like they entered France with the mandatory test, and planned to do the 7 days quarantine in their hotel rooms. From there they could go to Verbier (as entering from within Schengen) with no further tests.
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@Android2000, If that's the case, then presumably, the Hotel was aware of their intentions, and they don't appear to have broken any rules.
- apart from proving themselves to be idiots for even trying to travel in the current situation. (Future employers take note!)
Once they were in CH, then they might have been OK. They might have just been unlucky that 1 member got the virus. (maybe even in transit).
Maybe the organisers (both British and Swiss) should be getting the flack rather than the Students.
Would be interested to know when they booked the Course, paid the money, and if they had been refused refunds (as the course might have been going ahead anyway).
Must admit, if I'd paid that sort of money months ago and faced not getting a refund, I'd have made as much effort to get there.
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France closed borders pm Sunday 20 Dec. By am Wed 23 Dec, entry was permitted with negative test. Rapid Flow Tests were arranged and laid on for lorry drivers in Kent.
FR does not have an ancillary quarantine requirements. But CH could knock off the CH 10 days Q any time spent in France. We had 3 days knocked off by Bern, but still had to have an RFT, negative, in the village clinic, before being released from Q.
Even arriving in CH after 10 days in FR, the arrival documents have to be submitted and the Canton Contact and Tracing authority decides how many days remission and will still include a test requirement.
All in the Federal entry and quarantine rules.
Even in France, aren't professional courses/training permitted??
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I did indeed. Thanks for putting me out of my confused misery and proving that I was way off course!
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@albob, I was thinking there is likely a link. The guy trying to get on the Eurostar with a ski/board bag! FFS.
@brianatab, if they hadn't gotten Covid and tested positive, the plan presumably would have worked like clockwork. Also Vallorcine is about 1km from the border and the border post at Le Chatelard Frontiere is still unmanned most of the time (according to anecdotal accounts on the Cham FB page).
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