 Poster: A snowHead
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Thinking of going up to the little 'Chiaupe' glacier tomorrow at La Plagne, instead of Tignes. First lift up at 8am, closes at 1pm, 3 or 4 easy blue runs, 130m of vertical. Still, it's not much cheaper than Tignes or 2 Alpes at 24€60 for the 'day'!
Tempting though - how many more summers will it be skiable? Wonder how busy it will be....
You can see the summer area on the Paradiski piste map
A photo of the glacier here (210K)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Certainly looks like you aught to go soon. Do you have to walk up the fist few meters of the drag?
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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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Mark Lehto, looking at the URL, I'd guess that picture was taken on 16th August 2002, but that is just a guess.
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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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skanky, thats a month away! In a kinda sorta ish way.
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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 was trying to work that out from the photo too... doubt it - reckon that photo was taken when the summer area was closed. Never been up there at this time of year. Has to be done though. I'm hoping I'll be the only one there!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| PG wrote: |
| I was trying to work that out from the photo too... doubt it - reckon that photo was taken when the summer area was closed. |
I think you're right PG. I don't think it opened at all last year or 2002. The bottoms of the 2 drags are very close to the light coloured little buildings in the photo so the available 'runs' at the time of the photo would have been about 1/2 what they should be. I've only been up there in winter too and I seem to recall the blues were tending to the purplish ?
If you go, have a good one.
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I certainly did - much better than I expected.... some comments in 'Resorts'...
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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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Where I see you also disagree with the 'blue' classification of the runs up there. The only time I was up there in winter was with some beginners and they were all struggling. If LP reclassified them and made more people aware of the Glacier they would get more business. Even the La Plagne web site hides it away one level down and the SCGB Summer Snow Reports don't currently acknowledge it's existence so no wonder it's so quiet up there now.
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I can't imagine whether the SCGB list it or not is going to make much difference to their business 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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'd guess the best business to be had is getting teams there in fact.
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Don't know if it applied just to the Les Arcs club, but their lift passes were just 6€something for the day, a quarter of the full rate...
So I'm not sure how they could make the summer area viable. Belle Plagne seemed to have a fair bit going on, accommodation is cheap, so it should be possible to attract a few more tourists. I mentioned the trip on the French Skipass forum, few people seemed aware it was open.
That said, closing the summer skiing would be typical of big business philosophy. If it makes a loss it must be pretty tiny - one pistebasher and one chairlift working, hardly of major consequence to the CDA. After all, the cable car to the glacier would carry on working for the hikers and sightseers, so just how much can one chairlift and a pistebasher cost to run for the morning?
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You know it makes sense.
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Local rates, other clubs and teams need to book the slopes if they want to put gates out, at least in Austria that's the way it works.
Most of the glaciers take a few lifts to get to the skiing, Les Diab has a couple of cable cars, as does Stubai, Kaprun is three (?) chairs to the ski area, Titlis is two or three if I recall. Most have tourists riding them as well though.
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