 Poster: A snowHead
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@polo, Yup, what a swiz 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We went to LG but I noticed at the last minute that my touring skis need a bit of tlc. Too bad, I'd have loved to skin up to Ranfolly instead of walking - lots of traces already. Not sure how much will survive the incoming warm and rain.
Regardless, nice to switch back to winter gear, hear the sound of the snow under our feet, play snowball, and prepare for another season.
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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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Just seen news on Instagram that Avoriaz is early opening this weekend (presumably just for the weekend).
Great news, hopefully we see more cold temps and snow across the wider area too.
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Hi, I have a quick question for a trip to Les Gets on 20th-23rd Dec.
Is there a bus service from Les Gets to the Prodains car park? If yes, how long does it take? I am guessing a change is needed in Morzine. Thinking of getting this on Fri 20th to ski Avoriaz as LG is not open.
I've looked online and can only find old bus timetables, if anyone can point me to the latest winter24/25 timetable that would be appreciated.
Thanks.
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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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| dh900 wrote: |
Hi, I have a quick question for a trip to Les Gets on 20th-23rd Dec.
Is there a bus service from Les Gets to the Prodains car park? If yes, how long does it take? I am guessing a change is needed in Morzine. Thinking of getting this on Fri 20th to ski Avoriaz as LG is not open. |
You'd need to catch the public (~€3 from memory) bus from Les Gets to Morzine, then change onto one of the free ski busses to either Prodains or Ardent. At the other end of the day you probably don't want to stop to a drink on the Morzine side as the bus back from Morzine to Les Gets doesn't run that late (it does run past the time the lifts close, just not necessarily after the lifts have closed and you've had a couple of pints...).
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I'm watching the weather for Les Gets and PDS, across GFS models and Bergfex in readiness for our trip on 20 Dec.
This weekend is looking very hopeful for some serious snow, despite a bump in temps on Saturday which would, I presume, mean precipitation starts as heavy rain at lower altitudes (1000m or so), but good snow up at higher levels all weekend.
After the rain, it's predicted that lower resorts like Les Gets & Morzine should then see heavy snow over late Saturday and Sunday morning as temperatures and the snowline drop to well below freezing and under 1000m, and then stays cold for the following week.
Fingers crossed the forecast doesnt change, and cold remains for next couple of weeks and beyond. Its so frustrating when after a perfect cold snap a nice layer of snow all round, then the temps rise above freezing and the rain returns with a vengeance washing it all away.
Looks good for Avoriaz, and I guess majority of French resorts above 1800m for the start of the season.
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@Randyp909, keep the updates coming.. Im also in Les Gets for a long weekend and opening weekend on 20th. Forecast looks promising for snow to lower levels, just hope it lasts as you say.
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Well, forecast on Bergfex has already changed, with majority of wet/white stuff expected to fall on Saturday now (see below).
Will be interesting to see how quickly the snowline drops on Saturday in line with the expected drop in temps.
The 31l below means 31 litres of water per m2. At 2000 metres that converts to nearly a foot of snow, but just 9cm of snow down at village level, so to me that says there'll be a lot of rain on Saturday before it gets cold enough to snow.will be very wet on the ground too.
I'd hope that Chavannes and Ranfoilly, at 1400/1500m get a good covering.
Plenty of time for it all to change again though, reminds me of the person complaining on this thread earlier, watching the forecasts for snow, all looking great right up to the day itself then nothing?!!
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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've just been reminded of what it looked like on Avo opening day last year - on 3/12/2023, we were standing above the (closed) Swiss Wall, wondering where the restaurant was. It was somewhere under 2m of snow.
Compare to 30/11/2024, where we could see bare rocks under the restaurant deck (from the top of Choucas).
Obviously the official opening is in more than 10 days, and as shown previous seasons there's no point in having plenty of snow early December if thaw follows and wrecks the early season. Still, we're on our toes.
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@Randyp909, nice posts, did Avoriaz open last weekend? Or is it next weekend? haven't been following. But a mate is flying in week of 9th and am hoping to get first turns in either way, lift or no lift.
Re. the weather, rain to 2100m on friday, but sun-mon looks really good on the latest 12z runs....who knows regarding the numbers, all I can say is it holds more promise low down than the last fall in november. The freeze level won't be a problem, sub 1000m sunday, so it's all about whether the trailing fronts during the day head our way. As usual I think it's going to be great....really great.....while last time it was disappointing, I am not deterred....this one looks better, and that's all we can ask for at this range.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Always a good sign when @polo is happy!!
Out in Avoriaz on 19th for a few days so hoping the conditions will be as good as they were the same time last year!!
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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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I’m driving over on the 12th, I think official opening is 13th?
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| polo wrote: |
@Randyp909, nice posts, did Avoriaz open last weekend? Or is it next weekend? haven't been following. But a mate is flying in week of 9th and am hoping to get first turns in either way, lift or no lift.
Re. the weather, rain to 2100m on friday, but sun-mon looks really good on the latest 12z runs....who knows regarding the numbers, all I can say is it holds more promise low down than the last fall in november. The freeze level won't be a problem, sub 1000m sunday, so it's all about whether the trailing fronts during the day head our way. As usual I think it's going to be great....really great.....while last time it was disappointing, I am not deterred....this one looks better, and that's all we can ask for at this range. |
Yes Avoriaz opened last weekend, from what I could see from the photos and videos posted on social media, it looked hard packed and quite scratchy, but good enough to enjoy the snow in a bit of sun. They plan to do so this weekend as well, likely to be very different conditions though; heavy snow, overcast, 75-85kmh winds....
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You know it makes sense.
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It did open and was not that busy (on Saturday), apart from the restaurants. Lac Intret, Fornet and Conches, alongside Bd des Skieurs and obviously Prodains.
Plus I stacked right under Fornet, should've stayed on the piste.
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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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Does anyone know if [any] restaurants in the town will be open on the evening of the 12th please? The website seems to say they all open 13th or later.
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Poster: A snowHead
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If your talking about Morzine, Yes some will be open . During inter season the Morzine tourist office normally has a notice in their window which restaurants are open. There deffo will be a few open in Morzine.
In Avoriaz I’m not sure but it’s rock on snow opening weekend with loads of ski brands in town plus other stuff happening so my assumption is that some restaurants in Avoriaz will be open on the 12th December
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@@247snowman, thanks. And sorry, I should have clarified: Avoriaz. Maybe we’ll stop in Morzine for dinner on the way up.
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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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@Roscoe, happy is an understatement, seems to be a shift back to the western end overnight, especially from GFS. Honestly if we don’t get 20cm to 1200m under this pattern I will give up. Am still furious  with the robbery on nov 21, I’ll have to put it down to extraordinary bad luck, and point the finger at the handful of middle range models of a certain accuracy.
Wepowder now calling 40cm at 1500m
YR / ECM 50cm to 1200m
GFS also 50cm to 1200m
While Sunday is the main event, could be 30-40cm alone that day, I’d be surprised if there aren’t further top ups on at least Monday. This is one of the big differences vs 21 nov, the lows are going be more stationary over the alps rather than sweeping thru in a few hrs.
Rule of thumb is divide those numbers by 2 to avoid disappointment, which would be fine, as it’s going to be a very cold week for them to consolidate a base with loads of canons running. No sign of any damaging weather out to mid Dec.
@patrick!, good to hear it wasn’t busy…..where did you stack, off piste to the left of Marmotte?blue often catches me out, lots of sneaky dips and bumps.
Some colourful charts from other models, UKMO, WRF and ICON. Still not within the range of the more accurate short term ones like Arome, Harmonie, Arpege etc, won't see them until Friday. But below are also showing 40-60cm for the area, to low levels
  
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Nice update Polo, I'm certain with pure force of will there is going to be lots of snow this weekend.
I was reading about Andorra and Pyrenees today, it's not been looking great for them at all so far, but even they have fingers crossed for a big snowfall a day or so after the French Alps. So should be smiles all round by Mon/Tues.
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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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@poloMarmotte was not open, nor was Pschott (I go from OpenStreetMap data, not sure if the name is up to date), but I imagine it was more like right of Marmotte, quite close to the TS. The snow was far from ideal, that's my excuse. One ski went a good 20m ahead of me, my son (and probably people on the TS) merely pointed and laughed.
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@patrick!, well we’ve all been there, as long as good natured and no one got hurt. But a timely reminder to not push boundaries early season. Lots of rocks lurking up there too. A few years ago when I was learning to snowboard on Chavannes I was making good progress, and it was my birthday, so stopped for a pint at lunch in the Yeti. Maybe 2. Told the kids I’d do one more run…..back up la croix and down the flat left hand side directly under the express lift. Caught a front edge, planted nose into hard piste, blood everywhere. Long slow walk along the flats head tilted back.
Learnt a good lesson. Go right next time.
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Yup, Europe got a sick puke coming the next several days.
North America also in good shape.
Mammoth, California, got its biggest Nov snowfall since 2010.
West is best.
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| Whitegold wrote: |
Yup, Europe got a sick puke coming the next several days.
North America also in good shape.
Mammoth, California, got its biggest Nov snowfall since 2010.
West is best. |
I still can't get my head around $299 a day for ski passes though  I hope its not like that everywhere.
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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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@Randyp909, we may need that force of will as the various models have now sent most of the expected snow further south.
Wepowder now only 10cm at 1500m, with ECM 20cm and GFS 25cm.
Other models WRF 15cm, Arome 20cm, Arpege 20cm, ICON 15cm
So quite a big drop across the board, another short lived blast, with high winds on Saturday.
Sunday in particular has gone from 30+ to zero on some runs…..ah well, just have to look out the window and keep everything crossed for any surprises.
Here's a link to 14 models (a new record ) for Haute Savoie, and the range is still 20-40cm.
https://meteologix.com/fr/model-charts/deu-hd/haute-savoie/accumulated-precipitation/20241209-1800z.html
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@polo the predicted snow is falling in PDS right now though I guess much less than thought early in the week, Webcams looking wintry for the moment at least!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Randyp909, second wave incoming, then showers until tomorrow morning....could be another 10-15cm, feels cold now, heavy around gva, should hit PdS within an hour
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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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@shep, most people remember (and post) when the models are showing big numbers, 40+, myself included, then we had the downgrades a few days before Saturday to 10-25cm range, depending on model and level. So while last time we missed out as ppn headed east too fast, this time a lot more ended up SW and SE of us, but the end result wasn’t too far off what the forecasts were showing I don’t think. Not those peak forecasts from a week ago of course, the ones within a few days, as some were showing 5-10cm.
Just looked back at last years thread and we had had 2 bigger dumps by this stage already, probably 2x or 3x on this early season. But then there was the devastating spell of rain to 2000m+ from 9-13th Dec, and it never recovered / improved in time for Xmas/NY.
Well this year we are going to do a little better at least low down as it’s a cold and dry week out to 12-13th.
However there are some less than ideal trends appearing, too far to worry and nothing like last year on the radar…but risk is there…I’ll post some charts on WT....not that it will help much 
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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@Ozboy, jesus, that is devastating...was wondering why he wasn't posting. Absolutely shocking. Gutted
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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RIP Andy, didn't know the man at all, but his posts on the forum were always well received. Condolences to his family.
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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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Sad news. Condolences to his wife and children.
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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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@Ozboy, that is so sad. I didn’t know him but he always had useful, positive things to say and I enjoyed reading his posts.
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That is indeed sad. It's a funny old place, isn't it, a forum like this? You can genuinely miss somebody you never met. Thanks for letting everybody know, @Ozboy. RIP.
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Sad news indeed. RIP.
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That’s so sad and completely unexpected. Similarly, I had never met Andy in person but through our interactions on this thread, I felt he was a friend to many of us. Such a positive, helpful and all-round decent bloke. He was a key contributor and one of many that made the PdS forum so welcoming. RIP Andy. I hope there’s many untouched powder runs where you are.
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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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Good lord that’s terrible news 
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More terrible news. How awful.
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FAQ
. Unless the snow forecast from the 19th comes to something 
Thanks 
