 Poster: A snowHead
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The younger and more optimistic generations over on Natives seem convinced that the fantastic season down under means we can expect the same up north.... current poll results have 47% saying an epic winter is certain or likely, another 47% say it's totally up to chance, 3% think it can't get any better than last year, and only 3% have ticked "no, European winters are getting worse"....
Was it a poorly worded poll, are the younger generation either just naive, disinterested in climate change (or both) ...... or are some of us just a bunch of miserable old sceptics??!
So what do SnowHeads think is in store for us this winter in Europe?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It's a good question, I was reminded just yesterday of that old wives tale of lots of autum berries fortelling of a harsh winter, if that is indeed the case then here in the south of England we can expect a dreadful winter as there are masses of berries on the trees and brambles
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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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Hi PG and DG. I saw the native's poll. I think last time we had El-nino the winter was great in north america but sucked in europe, perhaps someone can confirm? Still you can have too much of a good thing. I spent the 1999 season in Davos... although we skied every day (well me and Maureen from the Ski Club - charming lady) it was touch and go at times. I remember walking down streets with 4 meters of snow either side, you couldn't see into the fields.
Heh heh, try telling that to kidz these dayz and they won't believe you.
Last year was a bit of a curate's egg... good in parts. I know the global ski mafia (aka TOs and the Ski Club) were going mad about it. Here is a retrospective on the 2003/4 ski season. Unfortunately the guy who compiled a lot of this information Jacques Villcrose, head of snow studies at Meteo France died in the spring.
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davidof, yep I was waiting for the Avelanches to stop in Wengen that year, mind you we only had about 1.5M in the village, at one point the trains were going up to a snow platform they created, spent the morning playing get back to the station before the train goes back up 
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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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| D G Orf wrote: |
| davidof, yep I was waiting for the Avelanches to stop in Wengen that year, mind you we only had about 1.5M in the village, at one point the trains were going up to a snow platform they created, spent the morning playing get back to the station before the train goes back up :sH: |
Wengen had a lot of trouble, a friend called Bev who was working there said that they didn't control the slopes above the town early enough and were then caught by surprise by the severe weather. Can't say if this is really true.
It was very nerve racking for tourists apparently, as you would know. 3 weeks with not much skiing. In Davos we had one day where we were restricted to a single lift on the Jakobshorn. But there were only about half a dozen skiing it and in a whiteout but fresh powder who cares?
When the sun finally came out the Horn looked like this:-
http://mapage.noos.fr/pistehors/images/davos/davos8.jpg
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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They wern't really caught by surprise any worse than other resorts, the problems were as follows
Firstly there was an Avalanche above the village that took out Cafe Oberland killing the owner and his wife, many comments have been made on this subject however I can tell you the following, firstly the day befor the avalanche occured the owner had phoned the local farmers who had cattle in nearby barns and suggested that they moved the cattle as he was certain an avalanche was coming, secondly he and his wife normally took a matress down to the cellar when he new such a thing was likely to occur (they didn't that particular night), lastly the restaurant and cellar were completely undamaged by the avalanche not even a glass was broken, only the upper floors were removed by the avalanche, this info comes from one of the owners cousins who'm he had called that afternoon and one of the rescue/recovery party.
Then we had several days of heavy snow, this was where most of the problems occured, due to poor visibility the helicopters were unable to fly, thus no surveys of snow buildup or controlled avalanches could be carried out, once the weather cleared the insurance companies told the locals that whilst they would cover any damage caused by a natural avalanche they could not cover damage caused by a man triggered one, thus everyone had to wait until the snow came down on its own, trains could go up to just above the village but no further, the cable car station was in a no go area (quite rightly as it was taken out by an avalanche destroying the cabin in the bottom station) so effectively ther was no skiing at Wengen, Skiing was possible at Grindelwald but getting there required a helicopter as the valley to there was an avalanche zone, I think it was also possible at Murren but again getting there was difficult, the cablecar station was in an avalanche zone and the railway had a bridge removed by an avalanche.
I was there for a month that year and got just 10 days skiing, mind you they did give me a nice big refund on my ski pass.
The worst thing I saw (barring the destruction of Cafe Oberland) was the way that the tour companies opperated, the Reps were reporting back every day that the resort was closed and that there was no skiing but the companies still told customers that there would be no problems, they then got out to the resort and took it all out on the poor girls who represented the companies concerned, one girl was reduced to tears by the actions of the guests and the abuse she had to take for something that was definately not her fault, in the end I spoke to some of the guests and suggested that they picked on her bosses, with me not being someone who was tied to their company and having been there already for 3 weeks they decided that they really would rather do that than pick on the local rep any further
The strangest thing was seeing the chap clearing the snow from peoples roofs by standing on the top of the roof and using a shovel, he had a serious fall off the Park hotel roof (4 or 5 stories) but it wasn't fatal due to the cushion of snow below
P.S is that the same Bev who used to work for Crystal ( I think ) and more recently the tourist office ?
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| D G Orf wrote: |
| The worst thing I saw (barring the destruction of Cafe Oberland) was the way that the tour companies opperated, the Reps were reporting back every day that the resort was closed and that there was no skiing |
The problem was the resorts were not closed and this meant that the likes of Crystal, Swiss Travel etc had to keep on flying their guests out because their insurers wouldn't pay up if they chose to cancel the holidays. Guests should have taken this up with the local authorities.
Yes it is Bev from Crystal... she's working for a hotel in Wengen now.
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davidof, Actually the skiing was officially closed, which is why we got the refund for the skipass, also a number of the hotels were closed because they were in the avalanche zone. The insurers were also paying up for piste closure and I know of at least one family that cancelled because of the situation and was covered, some of the travel companies switched guests to other resorts because of the situation others didn't seem to care
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