 Poster: A snowHead
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In my view, the best skiing in the area is around Morrillon/Les Carroz anyway.
It is in my view too! |
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, I messed that 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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| justacey wrote: |
Am I right in thinking that this piste here  is the bottom of Tourmaline - the only route back from Les Carroz, Samoens, Morillon, etc ?
It looks a bit steep / narrow (and looked very bare last week) |
Yep this looked like a road last Saturday!!!
If the snow is ther ski in but if not def drive. We drove from Morillon and it took about 50 mins.
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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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Normally the links have absolutely no problem with snow but this season has had an incredibly slow start. Presuming that the conditions are just normal when you are there, the link will be fine.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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justacey, ' Flaine is Great ' (in case you're worried, your post 2nd Jan ) You need to lust over the piste map a bit longer. The Res de Foret (where we stay) is indeed ideal for the Grands Vans lift. The Bissac poma (short) and rope tow are about 20 metres max away from the GV lift. From there to access the main Flaine ski area you can either go up the Grand Balacha pomas or ski down to the main Grand Platieres (DMC) lift or the Aup de Veran (eggs) lift.
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Thanks all, I do tend to get a bit obsessed in the run up to a ski holiday. In fact this weekend I've downloaded all the webcam pictures and have put them together in a document and will cross reference the pictures to the piste map. Am I a bit mad? or just a  ?
But I haven't quite had my question answered. Is the end of that run in the picture as steep and narrow and awkward as it looks?
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justacey, No as long as there is snow on it. Its is narrow and a bit windy for a while but not a probem at all. My kids 8 & 11 where fine on it after 2 days of snow skiing (and umpteen dry slope setions  )
Enjoy I have only two weeks left myself until I go and struggle not to be on this forum all the time instead of working (which I should be doing now)
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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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just got back from flaine 2 hours ago, very good time was had. heavy snow during the week really freshened the place up. was playing in knee deep powder on wednesday. not sure what the forecast is, but temps seemed to still be fairly low. enjoy
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Latest repor tform the OL, skiing in Flaine, staying in Les Carroz, arrived last night.
"Snow on piste not bad, off piste no good."
Make of that what you will.
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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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| justacey wrote: |
But I haven't quite had my question answered. Is the end of that run in the picture as steep and narrow and awkward as it looks? |
It is great at the top definately worth doing. Don't be put off - it only looks narrow because of the thin strip of snow down the middle. In general it's great.
However the best ever runs (in my opinion anyway) are Sairon & Timmolets - FAB!!!
Enjoy!
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You know it makes sense.
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justacey, thats surely not a run?! 
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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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Got back from Les Carroz after 4 days skiing, great guided off piste in flaine on the 1st day and superb blue sky piste skiing thereafter. The guide (Fred Prieur Blanc) was suggested to me by someone on the site and he was excellent, finding us abundant virgin powder in Flaine and Les Carroz and giving great instruction to boot. He also does private lessons for all levels he taught a couple of our group and the improvement was startling, i would highly recommend him. To anyone heading out there now Flaine was offering the best skiing the runs off the top cable car were in great condition, the lower runs in les carroz were good but getting rocky by yesterday afternoon. Up high in Samoens was still ok and the sairon piste in Morillon was pretty good for beginners.
justacey, there is another run back to flaine, it forks towards the end and i believe the right hand fork is the run in your photo. The main run in which goes to the top of the beginners drag lift was still ok yesterday. Not particularly pleasant in heavy traffic but adequate. My advice would be to stick with flaine though.
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Poster: A snowHead
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when i went to flaine it was raining!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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justacey, I will answer your question. The main run back is indeed that one - but it isn't as bad as it looks. It is a Blue run which anyone could do except an absolute beginner. The picture you have is in pretty bad shape. It is a bit busy at times, but if you avoid 4pm you should be just fine. Most of that run is very wide and easy, just the last couple of corners where a snow-plough would get even a beginner down without too much trouble. If in the condition in your photo - it would probably be closed, but it was fine last week. Hope this helps.
Steve
PS - The above assumes it is the Grand Vans Piste, which it looks like
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Just back from Flaine. The run being discussed above is now closed, however there is another one that is in better shape that is open. Mind you the return run is not pleasant at present as it is very icy.
Generally conditions up high are very good. We spend most of yesterday going up the higher chair lifts and the "Egg" gondola. Trips out of the Flaine area had less good snow, especially on the linking runs. It really reminded me of spring skiing with things being much better in the morning,
we did however have beautiful sunshine every day. We had a great time.
We had fresh snow for our first day (last Thursday) but they haven't had any since and there has been a bit of a temperature inversion going on with Geneva being colder than Flaine. They need more snow but if you were going this weekend there is still good snow to be found and they are working the snow-guns hard overnight and some of the day (if cold enough).
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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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Chris Reed, oo, thanks for that. I'm going on 17th February - the week after the main half-term skiiers will wreck anything good that's left 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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justacey, Plenty of time for more snow. I went the day after a big dump of snow, the previous week would have been different. Just shows that one day can make all the difference!
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justacey, we'll be there on 10th Feb - we'll try & leave some snow for you 
Seriously though, we've been to Flaine several times over the years & I've never seen the snow cover so poor as this year. That brown streak next to the GV chair really is the usual return route from the rest of the G Massif. In the past when it's skied out they've opened a route across to the Bissac drags further up the hill. There's only one thing for it - delete all G Massif webcams & weather forecasting sites from your favorites and stop worrying about what you can't change - who knows - it might snow whilst we're not looking!
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Build a kicker, you can jump that brown patch easy
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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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Chappers, On the "Perce Neige" itinery from Samoens towards Morillon (where the right hand bend goes towards Samoens - the size of the mogul build up the (size of a kicker) on Saturday was huge..... I know this as I very nicely said to my 9 year old "we need to build up speed here to avoid polling at the other end" (those who have been will know what I mean!) anyway - she went merrily shussing down - hit the big mound and took off - luckily kept her balance and zoomed on - when I caught up I was expecting a "Daddy... whinge, whinge about not liking it....." but she was laughing her head off!!!! Dont you just love the youthful lack of worry!!!
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The OL returned from Flaine last night with the info that by yesterday, it was pretty crap; very icy, lots of rocks, lots of nice sugary artificial snow, lots of grass. So bad, in fact, that she and her chums felt it necessary to ski down a (fairly short) closed black bump run, which turned out to be very rocky and icy (really?), so she fell at the top, slid to the bottom and hurt her shoulder (not badly). Stupidly irresponsible or what?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Ahem. Will someone please agree with me that the OL is stupidly irresponsible. I exect a bit of support from you chaps.
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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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Just a quick update. My hubby is in Morillon at the moment. When I spoke to him a while ago the snow cannons were going and had been since the pistes closed - and snow forecast shows it being too warm for cannons!!!
He said Flaine was great today but the runs to the right behind Stade where very icy. He suggests going up the gondola and doing the runs coming off to the left.
Said the links weren't too bad though although some brown patches appearing on Sairon (run back to Morillon)
Hope we get some snow soon though cause we go together on 1 March!!! May have to rethink that - keep the reports coming then we know what to expect!
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Ahem. Will someone please agree with me that the OL is stupidly irresponsible. I exect a bit of support from you chaps.
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Apologies fellow pint owner, "Yes indeed it was irresponsible of her to do the thing you said she did which was bad"
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You know it makes sense.
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richmond, Sounds like a daft thing to do to me. Which run was it that she did? Hardly any black bump runs either open or closed? Some of the red runs at the bottom were closed and good thing too, they were getting a bit scary. However with a bit of care you could avoid anything too bad.
We know Flaine very well and on Tuesday went up and down only a handful of runs all day but they were great. Serpentine, Crystal, Bellizuth (top section, bottom quite icy), top of Faust, Ermeraud were good. All off DMC/ 3 or 4-man chair. Also Mephisto was good (off the egg gondola). Serpentine is a great run as it has natural rollers in it. You never do it the same each time down so it is a new run for each decent. The only pain is the poling required to get to the top. However this has the added benefit that it is less busy as people are lazy!
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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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Chris Reed, thanks. At last. I don't know which run it was. It was the lower part of something, it was definitely bumpy and I think that she said it was black, but I could be wrong or she may have been lying (she does that sometimes, just to annoy). Sounds as if it could have been one of the reds you mention. She said it 'looked alright from the lift'; she's only been skiing for about 23 years so it's an understandable error, I suppose.
In general they did pretty well, I think, although her opinion was that conditions deteriorated quite a lot on Wednesday. They've had a couple of short beaks in Flaine before, but in much better conditions, so they don't know where the best stuff is to be found in the present circs.
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Poster: A snowHead
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richmond, Probably the bottom of Faust. We did that closed section earlier in the week and it wasn't too bad but on Monday I did the Faust from top to just above the closed section and it was b*****y scary, I shudder to think what the closed bit was like!
It was an odd few days, I'm not used to seeing the sun in Flaine as it nearly always snows! Two years back we had near white-out everyday so this time made a nice change, it was really more like March than January. Things were deteriorating as it warmed up and you needed to follow the sun to avoid icy patches. We started on the left hand side of the bowl (looking up the mountain) and worked round as the day went on. The stuff directly opposite the resort (Aujon drag) never really softened up. Also the link runs out to the grand massif were pretty dicey (lots of icy patches and lots of slow, scared people). When is a blue run harder than a red run? When it's got no snow, sheet ice and lots of crowds!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Chris Reed wrote: |
| I shudder to think what the closed bit was like |
Rocky, grassy and very icy apparently, with the added hazard of half witted English women whizzing down it on their arses.
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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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justacey, Yes but if I told you it wouldn't be hidden anymore Actually there aren't too many secret pistes and if there is a good decent dump the pistes are nearly all good.
Couple of recommendations
Green: Meleze just above Flaine Foret is the best way down if snow isn't great (need to go under a bridge under some drag lifts to get there)
Blue: Sairon (run down to Morillon), Dahu (at the top or Samoens), Crystal and Serpentine (top of which is graded Red) above Flaine - lovely and wide and Serpentine has nice rollers and jumps
Red: Mephisto above Flaine off the egg gondola. Faust top section off the DMC. In good snow the red run into Les Carroz (can't remember its name) is nice
Black: Marmottes above Samoens and the top of Dinnant Noir in Flaine
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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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The red into les carroz is timalets, if you like the steep part than use the drag at the side to do it again. The red and black to below samoens 1600 are real fun in good snow, the black grand cret is not much more difficult than the red and very quiet. Goes down to a now underused old bubble at Vercland.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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My fav is Lucifer which is a roller coaster red at the top of the DMC then go right
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I love "Fred" - top right hand side of the Flaine bowl - only a very short run - very rarely open - but great fun as no-one else seems to bother!
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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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justacey, Saturdays are usually quiet as it is change-over day - but the one we had was probably the only one for "locals" and daytrippers to get in with decent snow so it was busy. Anyone who knows the area will tell you that there is rarely a lift queue anyway!
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justacey, you will love flaine, relax, smile & enjoy. Never a que 
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FAQ
although the wife and kids (who haven't skied as much as me didn't like it too much. Loads of powder to plough through.
