Piste Bashing

A snowHead

Hi all,

I was just wondering, given that many of the low resorts/runs have no/little snow at present, say the snow will be falling on bare slopes. So for instance we have 50cm of snow (well you never know Confused

), on grassy pastureland slopes, once this is bashed, what depth will be left?

Thanks Very Happy

A snowHead

This website states that fresh "champagne powder" snow has a density of abou 30kg/cubic metre and is 97% air, whereas the densest dry snow is about 550kg/cubic metre. This equates to a compaction factor of just under 20 times. Therefore using these values, your 50cm of fresh snow should equate to about 2.5cm of bashed snow. snowHead

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Alastair Pink, better hope its 500cms then! Shocked

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davejsy, or they don't bash it and you can ski 50 cms powder Toofy Grin

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cathy,

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That assumes that they'll just squish it flat - in practice they push the stuff from the edges to the middle as well snowHead

After all it is free

STOP THE BRUTAL GROOMING

stanton, if there's no base, then 50cm of snow isn't enough - you need to compact it down and make a base, then build on that.

Stop the grooming once the base is established!

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Wear The Fox Hat, not true Shocked

You can get away with as little as 30cm of snow for forming a base, but only if the underlying conditions are good, alpine pasture does not need a lot of snow on it to be skiable which is why many low lying resorts need less snow to open than the higher ones where there is far more rock present on the surface

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D G Orf, I bow to your knowledge. I just suspect that the temps have been so high lately that even on good pasture it would take more to make a decent base.

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Wear The Fox Hat, that depends on the weather, if the ground gets a chance to freeze before the snow falls then the snow required will be considerably less than if it doesn't freeze, also the snow will last a lot longer if teh ground is frozen

D G Orf, well we are definately going to get the cooler weather, lets just all hope we get a decent amount of snow to go with it. . . . Confused

You know it makes sense.

This is interesting - as I understand from the above the snow requires compaction to make a firm base onto which more snow can be pushed and flattened to make conditions suitable for skiing on. So if this is necessary for a pisted run, how do the skiers off-piste get on? Is their kit completely different to make up for what must surely me thicker looser snow - for example do they use wider skis to spread the load, and what stops them from from digging into the lose snow to an extent that it would be like skis digging into a snow drift. Not that I've got any intention of going off piste, I'm just intrigued.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Megamum, spot on - wider skis. THe main difference in technique is that you cant skid them sideways as much, but al the squashing means they go slower anyway.

A snowHead

I do laugh when the powder comes and my mate on his top of the range carvers suffers whilst I glide on my magic carpet board. Sweet revenge for those shaded hard-packed 9 am pistes that he makes me go on !

In the interest of the environment I think that on powder days only boarders should be allowed on the slopes for an 'eco friendly' initial compaction of the snow, we can just glide on it to achieve that first sensitive initial compaction before the nasty machines can have their wicked way wink

A snowHead

lampbus, rayscoops, thanks folks. We had fresh snow one day when I went last year - it was a bit wet and heavy when it came down and then of course it froze over night. Earlier the next day the snow felt entirely different to that which we'd been skiing on previously, for one thing it had crisp crust on it - I felt with a whole 3 days experience to go on, that it was harder to ski on. The existing conditions had been little recent fresh snow - the slope was well compacted and we had bright sunny weather on it each day to ski in. As the day progressed on the new snow and it had many skiers over it and things warmed up it became easier to ski on (either that or I got used to it!). I was amazed at the difference that different conditions made. It must be very difficult chosing a ski which will perform well in a variety of different conditions.

I used to know someone who sailed and they used to tell me that on the same river every race could be different due to different weather and tide conditions. I've only done this skiing lark passably for a week and already I think the same is true for skiing & snow as well.

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Megamum, absolutely, the snow can change every day, for instance a piste that had powder snow yesterday might today be coated with breakable crust, 1 day of hot weather can totaly alter the surface structure follow this with several more days of warm weather, it will change again, stick in a few cold days and it changes yet again, add rain or fresh snow and the surface changes again.

Experienced skiers will have a good idea what snow conditions are likely to be but even they can be caught out, perhaps in a patch of snow that is particularly wind blown, or an area that never sees direct sunlight

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Apologies if this is the wrong thread to use.

We’re currently in Rohrmoos-Unterthal, the higher up satellite of Schladming. There’s enough snow at all levels, it came since the 23rd Nov, but it’s probably mostly snow-made.

The red runs appear completely un-piste bashed. Despite dead quiet slopes, a sea of humps, bumps and scrapped ice patches. As if it’s late afternoon on a steep slope anywhere on a heaving mountain, after out of their depth nervous skiers have carved up valleys. But it’s so quiet!

In mid December in a snow making period, do resorts leave red and black pistes unbashed, in any of your experiences?

I’m recovering from a grade 1 MCL tear, so I’m in a little pain and have less confidence just now. The heaps of man made snow and then ice are making the reds unenjoyable.

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Wow, a 15 year bump!

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Impressive

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@Snow&skifan, not sure about Austria. In France in recent years they have started to leave some slopes (marked on the piste map Piste Natur) unpisted.

Alternatively it could be to keep costs/resource use down while it is quiet.

You could always speak to a liftie or pisteurs to find out what is going on.

After all it is free

@Snow&skifan, good plan.

I like the idea of leaving stuff unpisted but in some conditions it certainly makes it tough going.

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