Too much snow !!!!!!!!

A snowHead

Thought this might change the conversation for a while from us all praying for snow. NehNeh

Anyone had any experiences where to much snow has had an impact on their ski holiday?

A snowHead

I've never been anywhere where it's dumped it down to the extent that lifts have been closed & avalanche blasting etc but I have skied in snowfall that was so heavy it was hard to work out where the horizon was.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Was in Soldeu a few years back where we got a metre in 24 hours ! Shocked

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I was in La Plagne about 3 yrs ago when, in the second week of Jan, it dumped so heavily that most of the resort was closed the whole week. I was getting grumpy about them 'unprofesionally' being unable to get the runs open when 'in my experience rolling eyes

' places like Val-T never had any trouble.
On the way home, we discovered that Val_T had lost the top station of one of their major lifts due to an avalanche, a helicopter had crashed into lift cables in Chamonix and, perhaps most astonishingly, Val d'Isere had refunded a day and a half of lift passes that week! Embarassed

It's the only time I have ever quit at lunchtime due to weather (Rain at 2000m)

I still got in my best day's skiing ever that week though snowHead

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I got stuck for an extra night in Courchevel several years ago because heavy snow had closed the road in/out. There was no silver lining to this particular problem because only one or two drag lifts were open because the avalanche risk was so extreme. Fortunately there was plenty of spare beds available that night as thousands of people spent the night sleeping in cars and coaches on the approach roads (it was a Saturday).

First weekend of March 2006 heavy snow closed the access roads to Val d'Isere, Tignes and Arc 2000, so thousands of people spent the night (or 2?) sleeping on the floor of the Bourg St Maurice sports centre. FDor those of us who were already up the mountain snow conditions were amazing, but fairly frustrating for those people stuck down in the valley.

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Gstaad, couple of years back.. We were skiing and were stuck in a blizzard with really high winds, zero visibility... it rocked.

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Couple of years back - heavy snow in Wengen closed everything for a day and partial opening the following day. Got a day refund from the lift pass without even asking when I returned the card snowHead

After all it is free

Moved from where it did not belong snowHead

February 1999 - Verbier - arrived Sunday afternoon and it did not stop snowing until mid way through the week. All lifts closed except the telecabine down/up to Le Chable - so the intinery was the only 'run' open until sometime on Thursday afternoon. They ( televerbier ) opened Bruson for a short while on the Thursday Morning but the chair lift broke down ( while I was on it )

Massive amounts of snow all over the Alps that week, this was the week of the horrific avalanche at Galtur.

2years ago went to arinsal in andorra at the end of jan. absolutely hoofed it down most of the week with most of the mountain bein closed so the very limited runs became boring. midweek they were saying in the bars one night that the whole mountain may be closed the next day due to the weather so we didn't even bother trying to make it up there the next day so went shoppin instead! good excuse for a day off to reecover wink

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The tonnes of snow that fell one night when I was in Whistler messed up my day! I was knackered anyway, and couldn't ski powder very well either - so as expected, it all ended in tears. (Well, not literally! Blush

).

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St Anton in March 2005. It was powder day every day all day for 3 days. some of the higher, more exposed pistes were closed off but they couldn't stop us going off-piste despite the avalanche risk! Wasn't so great for the first-timers in our group who were confined to the bunny slopes for the entire holiday.

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St.Anton in 1988. Got stuck in the Ulmer Huette for two days! It didn't Rock, cos there is not a lot to do up there, and I spent the whole two days looking out the window at all that lovely powder that I wasn't being allowed to go out and play in Sad

CP, we were in Verbier that week, arrived on the Saturday. We had a power cut and were told just before it stopped snowing to prepare to be evacuated. It seemed a laugh at the start of the week though that novelty soon wore off Sad

. By the wednesday I was nearly suicidal. Missed the Thursday morning 'chair' luckily by the sounds of it, so had a bit of a ski Thursday afternoon, Friday then back home Saturday Sad

.

You know it makes sense.

Hi ,

I was in Pas de la casa two years ago when it the mountains were shut for 2 days due to the amount of snow that fell. Spent the two days in the pub which led to stomach ulcer bleeding then a trip to the hospital by ambulance in Andorra La Vella for an endoscopy. Finally got out discharged from hospital only to find out the road back up to resort was closed so after forking out €600 euro for the hospital bill (would not accept insurance) had to pay another €250 to stay in hotel and €100 for taxi back to resort the next day. Expensive drinking session that turned out to be.

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Grimsby Ranger,

The Bruson 'chair' incident sticks firmly in my memory. We trawlled all the way over to Bruson by coach and paid our 30 chf ( IIRC ) for the day. The queue for the chair was pretty large as you can imagine. I had been on the chair for a short time when there was an almighty cracking sound from above us. Then in slow motion a very large fir tree toppled out of the forest and hit the power lines that supplied the chair. The weight of the snow on the tree had caused it's demise. The power cable was severed and was whipping around in the air like something out of a cartoon - it was very scary especially at is was no more than a hundred metres from where I was sitting - motionless and trapped.

There were two snowboarders on the chair in front of us, which was luckily stopped right over a large snowy mound. The boarders lifted the bar and dropped about 6 feet into the pile of snow and that was them sorted. We had to wait quite sometime until the chair was wound very slowly backwards - not sure if it was by hand or by backup diesel motor/generator - to the bottom. We had our pass money refunded and proceded to ski all the way back to Le Chable across fields/gardens and roads. When we eventually got back to Verbier the Medran lift was running and a limited number of pistes were open. Boy was there some snow up there though snowHead

We went back on Sunday so did at least manage to get two full days in, although a lot of lifts were still shut/inoperable.

A snowHead

lampbus, Was in Wengen at that time, went to Interlaken for a few beers

A snowHead

Was in Zermatt quite a few years ago when there was a heavy fall and you were only allowed in and out of the resort by helicopter for a couple of days, all lifts were obviously closed.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The world's heaviest ever one-day snowfall is claimed to be 193cm in Colorado during Apr 1921.

Anything over a meter in 24 hrs is recognized as a biggie.

The world's heaviest ever snowstorm is said to have been in California during Feb 1959. 480cm fell over 7 days.

The world's biggest ever snowflake measured 20cm x 30cm in Siberia in 1971. Bigger than an average human hand.

The world's coldest ever recorded temp was -89c in Antarctica in Jul 1983.

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CP, I remember 'the incident' as everyone was talking about it though I thought it was earlier in the week, probably my memory wink

. We had gone over to Bruson on the Sunday as that was about all that was open, I think it was shut after Sunday or Monday if I remember right. It was one of my first ski trips so really struggled on the Sunday in all of the snow, I'd still struggle now but have a great laugh in it snowHead

.

I went with a friend to Chamonix a few weeks after that and remember the awful scene when being bused to Le Tour after the avalanche there. They were obviously waiting for the snow to melt before the clean up operation started so could still see pieces of tree and chalet etc. buried in the snow at the side of the road, truly terrible. Crying or Very sad

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Grimsby Ranger, Yeah I remember going to Le Tour a couple of weeks after that dreadful event. The entrance paths to the houses in the village were narrow trenches excavated out with walls of snow way above head height either side. The road between Argentiere and Le Tour also had walls of snow either side which were twice the height of our Volvo estate.

The skiing was great but after such death and destruction there was a sombre atmosphere about the place.

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Had a few lock-ins in Alta and Snowbird before.

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admin, I was in Val d'Isere that week, and the week after, which was fabulous.

After all it is free

almost missed my very first skiing holiday with the school a few years back as about 8 inches of snow fell on Belfast international airport runway the day before. Lots of flights were cancelled, but fortunately we made it Smile

admin, I too was in La Plagne that week! And had the rain at 2,000 mtrs. It wasn't so much I lost the horizon that week, as I lost the sensation of knowing when I was moving

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Two years ago many local resorts were closed because of too much snow. I rang up Hochkar at 9:00am and they confirmed that the snow should be cleared later that day. Jumped in the car and skied fresh powder from 11:00 to 16:00. Then decided to make my way over to another small local resort where they do very little groming and the lifts hadn't been open in the week. The trip involved driving through a small mountain range. In the summer the trip would normally take just over an hour. 6 hours later I had to give up and sleep over in a local B&B until they avy blasted the valley in the morning and opened the road. Skied fresh powder again all day. snowHead

With so much snow the avalanche danger was high, so high that I had my transceiver switched on even while driving the car.

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Wengen - ? about 6 years ago. Last day, so much snow that they couldn't open the hill so we went for a nice walk to a cafe instead. The next week the cafe and a cable-car station in town were wrecked by avalanches.

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Been in St Anton when much of the resort was closed due to avalanche risk/clearance for several days.

On another holiday I couldn't get into Val D'Isere on the first day because the road from Moutiers was closed because of avalnche risk/clearance. On the same holiday I was regularly moving the car each evening so the snow clearance vehicles could do their stuff - which was a bit of a pain after a hard day's skiing.

You know it makes sense.

We were in Gressoney half-term week 2002 (I think). Spent the first three days skiing 1 1/2 slopes becasue of lack of snow, then in the course of 24hrs >1m fell. The next morning was magnificent but by the afternoon the slopes were closed due to excess snow and by the next day (departure for some Europeans) there was a problem identifying where cars were. We just sat in the bar watching the entertainment Very Happy

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Gateshead last new years eve we had 10mm and all buses etc stopped early, roads were closed and people were panic buying milk in Sainsburys !

A snowHead

I was in Les Arcs the week you were in La Plagne (and the week after) stuck at 2000 for most of it with no way of reaching the other resorts. But we didn't quit after lunch!! Oh no, we and all the other mad English people just carried on, soaking wet, being laughed at by the French... Total white out, all you could see was the skier directly in front of you. Probably very silly and definitely very dangerous. The second week was fantastic, sunny all week.

A snowHead

winter of '93 we had too much snow for a good while, (south west Colorado); felt bad for people that were on holiday here because many of them just had to sit in the pubs. Seems like it was the winter of 2003 that there was so much snow in Jackson (Hole), Wy that skiing was difficult and filming was imposible. Have to check with my son to see if that was the right year. bill armstrong

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Had to overnight in Kitzbuhel on our way to Selva in '86. Didn't get in to the chalet until 1800 sunday (left the UK friady night ) and we walked from Ortesie as the coach got stuck in a traffic jam. Obviously I didn't know how far it was and just kept walking as I was bored and restless on the coach. Masses of snow that week and I remember our guide betting us we wouldn't jump off this house...!! I didn't even know I was on the roof. Lots of cars got skied over that week when they cleared out the roads and left the cars making a bridge to the road...oooopppss

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We get huge snowfalls at Mt Baker. We had closures earlier this season and last season too due to high avalanche danger within the ski area. Not to mention digging out lifts. Also part of the inbounds area was closed to anyone without a beacon, probe, shovel and partner earlier this month, steep and DEEP! The day before that restriction I was there and falling was not advised because it was nearly impossible to get up again.
Right now things are pretty stable, lots of people going into the back country outside the ski area boundaries. 343cm to 368cm base right now, come on over and enjoy some of the white goodness. snowHead

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Yes dovos and klosters march 2006 non stop snow for the week only jakobshorn really showing any reasonable visibility, awesome though as falling in the whiteout didnt hurt !

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It didn't really cause us a problem, but we arrived at Mammoth in early April 06 just as a 72" dump was finishing following a 2 or 3 day storm. That snowfall took the total for the season to 662" or something like that - a new all time record for Mammoth. The only real issue we encountered was trying to find the hotel as we drove into town as the snowbanks at the side of the roads were huge!
The next 10 days were an amazing mixture of sunny days & further snowfall. Fantastic place, great holiday.

After all it is free

I got stuck in Val Thorens in the 80's once the resort was cut off for 5 days nearly ran out of beer. We couldn't ski much though the avalanche risk was too high

Hello - Hannah the Fall-Line 'journo' again, looking to harvest this thread (well, 10% of it - the whole thread would need a magazine to itself!) Any just impediments? Let me know...

Cheers,
Hannah

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Well not too much snow but.. in stubaier gletscher skiing at winds of up to 75km/h and temperatures of -15 when theres a blizzard is... fun to some extent. Ahhh the great outdoors, nothing too bad happened to me i came across an elderly english lady who asked that i ski down and call for osme help as she didnt feel she could ski down on her own, so i assume she got down safely... Riding some of the chairlifts and gondelbahns was strange though, would keep shaking a lot and the howling wind did make me a little bit scared at times. Such a weird feeling having wind stop you to a standstill when youre skiing down a slope or completely change your direction...

Help!!

Too much snow !!!!!!!!

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