 Poster: A snowHead
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Went to Morzine this afternoon and especially Granges was in a bad condition. Rest was a bit better luckily and snow guns were pumping in quite a few places. Bad snow compared to other years? Definitely, but we all knew that, right? Was expecting it worse…
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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A weekend of contrasts:
Saturday : lovely soft grippy snow, nice and warm, not too busy, great visibility.
Sunday: Lots of fun hard pack, a bit parky, overcast and snowing in the wind, lots of day 1 holiday keen skiers struggling to get to grips with the low light and hard pack, in some places thinly covered with a veneer of cannoned snow.
TBF there was ground cover all over (though thin / cannoned in places) but the following were fine (a little interesting on a blunt edged board) Ardent, Crete, Prolays, Tannes, Comes a Florets, Lindarets, Plaine Dranse, Cornebois, Combes, Linga above Gondola ( didnt go to below Echo Alpin), Arare, Lac, Fornet, Coubore, Abricotine Valley, Blue Velvet, Prolays...
Lots of people stopped across the piste on the Blue of Chaux Fleurie and the little steep pitch on Reine, where the only grippy stuff was right at the edges under the canons.
But nice to see a few more boarders around with the Dutch influx.
Fresh (-6) and bit cloudy now.
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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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Was getting a little worried after some of the negative reports here over the last few days, especially having told arriving guests that the skiing was still good, but my optimism seems to have been justified after a few hours out today.
We skied from Foilleuse round to Crosets, with only one of the connecting runs just a little bit stony at one point, couple of brown areas still quite nice to ski on. Thence after a beer at the Chaudron we headed over to Lindarets, Prolays, Chaux Fleurie, Chaux des Rosées, Combes and then Gabelou back to Vonnes and the bus back over the col home.
Everywhere is still (mostly) white; everywhere is still good. Sure, a few bits might be a challenge for some, with mostly hard surfaces, particularly back to Linga, but nothing I'd call icy as such, just scraped on some of the steeper slopes. I'd just serviced our race slalom skis, which helps, of course  Crowds were not an issue anywhere - I imagine yesterday would have been worse with weekenders - either on the pistes or the lifts.
Gabelou was fine, despite its reduced number of chairs, but I also noticed that they were running a bus from the end of the track past the lift, so if there was a queue you could just get that back to Vonnes instead.
Lovely sunny day, just a wisp of cloud at one point, cold but not too cold, a very enjoyable ski day (half a day really, as we didn't leave till 11).
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@Chaletbeauroc, presumably Super Morzine is naff - especially lower down?
Incidentally, does anyone know if 'La Grenouille du Marais' is open this season? (Just above the top of the Super Morzine cable car)
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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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@crosbie, If you'd followed my route you'd realise that I went nowhere near it. Very rarely do, in fact. Today we didn't even dip over into Avoriaz proper, so can't even tell you what that looked like.
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| Chaletbeauroc wrote: |
| @crosbie, If you'd followed my route you'd realise that I went nowhere near it. |
Yes, I did realise that, but I wondered if you didn't go near it because you'd heard via some other source that it was to be avoided, etc.
But, then if you rarely go that way, this question is better answered by someone who does.
Thanks anyway.
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@crosbie, SM is a fair old schlepp from Morgins.
..and if you've only got 1/2 day and you're going clockwise, then it's a bit out of the way, so I don't think ChaBeRo is avoiding it in the way I avoid the Pleney.
I've been up from SM a few times this year (little car park by Zorre lift) and its been fine up there. I notcied 2 of the 3 restos were open - which one is the Marsh Frog?
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@OuatteDePhoque, Quite so. Nothing against the SM area, quite quaint in its own way, with nice gentle slopes which would be great for teaching (in fact I recall using them for demos on my L1 Telemark course), but we rarely have any reason to go there, is all. We do quite often get round to Prodains and Fornet areas, but there's some much more interesting skiing there, and the latter of course is also easily accessed in either direction via the Cubore chair.
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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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| OuatteDePhoque wrote: |
@crosbie, SM is a fair old schlepp from Morgins.
..and if you've only got 1/2 day and you're going clockwise, then it's a bit out of the way, so I don't think ChaBeRo is avoiding it in the way I avoid the Pleney.
I've been up from SM a few times this year (little car park by Zorre lift) and its been fine up there. I notcied 2 of the 3 restos were open - which one is the Marsh Frog? |
It's the one just at the bottom of Zore that you can ski into before going down round the corner to the right to the SM lift station. Also accessed by stairs up from just outside the lift station (not the restaurant at the end of Tetras).
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@crosbie, yes, 'La Grenouille du Marais' is open this year. They have actually opened a little wooden snack bar near the bottom of the steps aswell.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@pateman99, Jolly good. I was beginning to worry they were going to fold in the face of competition (a new neighbouring piste-side café) 75m away.
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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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| crosbie wrote: |
| @pateman99, Jolly good. I was beginning to worry they were going to fold in the face of competition (a new neighbouring piste-side café) 75m away. |
I think they own the neighbouring piste side cafe, if you mean the one by the bottom of their steps (I haven’t seen anywhere else new?). The run past their top entrance has hardly been open this year though.
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@andy from embsay, are you referring to the 'little wooden snack bar' that @pateman99 mentions? Or the large chalet type café 75m further up the Tetras?
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You know it makes sense.
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The large chalet is L’Passage isn’t it? I haven’t spotted anything new up there (though may have not been looking when I went past).
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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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@andy from embsay, by 'new', I mean 'wasn't there 5 years ago'. :-}
In my book the Amara complex is still 'new'.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@crosbie, L’Passage has been there at least 10 years - I have photos of my kids drinking hot chocolate there in 2012!
I think it may have been extended at some point as it seems to have a decent sized aprés/end of day crowd and a new(ish) terrace at a lower level.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@andy from embsay, time flies. Maybe it is 10 years. Seems like 5 to me. :-/
The detour from Zore to Tetras that bypasses the often brown lower section of Zore is still new to me too. Trouble is, that detour stops people passing by the Frog in the Bog. 
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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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@crosbie, they appeared to have pinched all the snow off the run straight down Zore to keep Tetras open last weekend - it was almost completely bare. I’m surprised Tetras has still been open as long as it has. We’re back out next weekend and hopefully the colder weather will keep it going long enough for the hoped for snow around the 7th to arrive. Otherwise it’s back to Prodains to get home.
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@andy from embsay, I suppose you could get the Ardent cable car down too (assuming the slush turns to grass before the bottom) - with a bus to the pedestrian bridge into Morzine.
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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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Montriond bus less frequent and a bit of a faff for us with having to walk back over the bridge @crosbie. We’re on the U bus route so either Super M down and pick the bus up at the roundabout (favourite) or the A down from Prodains and hop on the U at Pleney.
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@andy from embsay, sounds like you have a fixed abode in Morzine then - that you are very familiar with navigating to/from.
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| crosbie wrote: |
| @andy from embsay, sounds like you have a fixed abode in Morzine then - that you are very familiar with navigating to/from. |
Yep, managed 42 days last season - probably be a bit short of that this year - 23 and counting so far!
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@andy from embsay, I think you can take the Zore chairlift in both directions if the pistes underneath are closed?
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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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@denfinella, yes, you can but it’s a right flog up to it from where Tetras cuts off and then again when you get off you have to walk back up to the gondola. I did it once at new year and stuck to Prodains after that!
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@andy from embsay,  good point!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Super Morzine is still open but only just tbh. Brown pistes from farmed snow.
There are three bars/restos near the telecabine. La Passage, higher up the piste on the right. La Grenouille, above the lift on the left and as someone pointed out, with a new lower level bar; and the place below the telecabine on the right. This opened when they originally installed the Super Morzine lifts in the early nineties but then shut again until five or six years ago.
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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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Let's rewind the weather clock to see how next weeks event has evolved
Started talking about the strat warming in mid feb, winds reversed around the 22nd, so 2 weeks later for impact suggested 5-10th Mar.
The first chart (posted 17th feb) showed the trop vortex starting to get modelled over on the asian side around Mar 5th, and 11 days later we can see that's still the case, with an improved dig south towards central europe and better heights around Iceland / Greenland (yellow area)
 
By the 20th feb (1st chart below) the mean charts (as opposed to Op) started to bring more consensus that we could be facing a prolonged spell of winter potential, showing the 7th.
Now 8 days later (2nd chart) we can see the mean charts were pretty accurate even 16 days into the future. Again with improvements along the way with better Greenland block, and a westward shift in the polar low over north europe
 
Bringing us to today, here are the 7 Op runs for the 7th Mar (next tuesday)
      
Any concerns about the low being too far east have been trumped by concern that the low is going to be too far west. If it was too far east, well we would just stay as we are under average temps and dry. But with the clear shift west, it means milder air is going to be mixed in, bringing rain to mid altitude. The charts are ordered from worst to best, so the first 2 look dreadful, while the last 2 are excellent. It's a positive though that ECM and UKMO are on the right side. The main difference is that some models quickly break down the atlantic ridge (green area), we need that to hold back the atlantic and allow the polar low to drop south uninterrupted.
There is 50/50 chance right now that we get some rain lower down initially, but even if we get a west based low there is a good chance that it will clear across in the following days and start to bring down some colder air. Here are the main 3 anomaly charts for fri Mar 10th
  
Strong consensus (even 10 days out) that the main trough will link up with the south atlantic low. Temps would be marginal at 1500m under that pattern, but pretty close to average. If the flow is flat west we are going to see damage (season ending?) below 1800m, while a more NW flow will bring snow to the valleys.
So summing up, it's easier to predict the global pattern 2 weeks out sometimes than nailing down surface conditions less than a week away.
There is going to be temperature drama across the alps if the atlantic low gets involved and mixes out the northerly cold. I would expect rain-snow over several days for NW alps lower down.
Either way, I wouldn't be getting the bike out just yet.
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Anyone know with which model bergfex is aligned? It’s my goto app after Polofex. Chas from Châtelweb retired from forecasting weather for our valley and he is probably thinking he chose the right season to quit.
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You know it makes sense.
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@polo, thanks for the write up.
Will be watching the next two weeks with interest. Hopefully come mid March we will know if the season will extend to Easter or not.
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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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Back home late last night (seen the northern lights on flight home, which was pretty cool). Update from Yesterday - lovely bluebird conditions with great visibility. We started the day in Lindarets and headed up the Mossettes lift, skied down that side with the intentions of heading towards Morgins, but the runs down that way were patchy, so we avoided and headed back over towards Les Crosets. Done a few laps of the runs around Lécheruse and then got the Chavanette back up towards Avoriaz where we done a few laps before exiting via the boardcross route. All in all, a great days skiing (best of our 4). To anyone headed out, be prepared that the lower slopes will potentially have limited/brown/slushy snow, but there is still load of good stuff up top. I like to be positive about these things, as reading some of the posts would give the impression to some, that there is no snow at all. A good heavy top up, would leave the area in much better shape indeed, but there is still some skiing to be had regardless (plenty more skiing than there is at my desk right now )
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Ozboy, bergfex is pretty much raw ECM data, adjusted by their inhouse weather experts, at least it used to be. So should be showing one of the better outcomes today but doesn't look as good as YR.NO, which definitely uses the ECM data. Although even that is showing rain to snow 7-8th below 1500m. Barring a dramatic worsening, Avoriaz should get enough either way for late season skiing.
@zzz, good to hear, let's see how long the positive vibes last if Morzine and Les Gets get flooded 
But the balance is definitely on the snowy side right now, ICON 6z is good and GFS 6z not bad.....but still quite a high snowline on wednesday.....60cm starting at 1600m, down to 1000m, but obviously too far to worry about that detail.....could easily shift 500m up or down.
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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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Thanks for the update @B1g_browner Even though I am lucky enough to get several trips a year (not lucky enough to live out there, but my wife would suggest I almost do!), I think the conditions have been tolerable this year. Last year wasn’t a lot better in terms of new snow, but at least we missed the warm deluge that we got at xmas. However in the 20-odd days’ skiing I’ve had so far this season I’ve only done half a dozen runs that were definitely “grotty”. And I’m still hopeful that our trip next week will involve some fresh snow at some point!
Thanks as always to @polo for the charts and the explanation (which I have to confess I still can’t manage to find for myself!).
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@andy from embsay,
For the raw Op models / daily runs....switch them at the top this page
https://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/gfse_cartes.php
For mean ensemble charts, you select GEFS ensemble (again at top of page, click GFS model first), and then select "Moyenne". Similar for GEM.
For ECM, click "CEP/ECMF 0.4 NEW", then "Ensembles N!", then "Moyenne". From there you can choose several parameters, eg pressure, 850 hpa temps, or their respective anomalies.
Precipitation isn't so useful beyond 3-4 days, especially on the ensemble charts....best to watch the various Op runs (precip charts), or the various apps
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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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Ah, thanks @polo - have scoured Meteociel several times but never tracked down the right page!
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In les gets from 10th to 18th really hoping for a good dump. Looks like it is possible but if not we will be in the mountains skiing on something
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Afternoon everyone. Could someone give me an idea of what the conditions are like on the run down to Les Gets at the moment? Got a short 3 dayer coming up and wondering if I'll need to spend my time in Avoriaz! Thanks!
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"The" run? Which run down to Les Gets - there are lots?! Check the webcams - that will give you a live view of the area including several runs into town including Perrieres and Front de Neige.
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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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Hopefully not the run down from Chery as it's closed!
If you need to be reassured, Gentianes (Chavannes down to LG front de neige) will be the last to close.
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Thanks Patrick! - appreciate the info!
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FAQ
) note, I went for a little ski tour on the front face of the Grand Turche yesterday. Whilst there was no natural snow to speak of, there was a decent covering of man made snow down to resort level. It was boiler plate of course but at least it was white 
