 Poster: A snowHead
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The second half of the Winter season across the Northern Hemisphere is upon us.
North America has above-average conditions. Europe is improving. Asia is average.
Here is a summary of global snow conditions, from West to East...
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Canada: Western Canada has excellent coverage. Lots of powpow. Whistler is 100% open. Snow depths in Banff are roughly 20% above the longterm average. East Canada is faring better after a slow start to the season. Mont Tremblant has all its tows running.
USA: The Western side of the USA remains healthy. Alta (Utah) and Mammoth (California) are 100% operational. Snow in the East has deepened. Killington (Vermont) has about 90cm down low, and 110cm up top.
Scotland: The weather has been been windy this week. Snowdepths are about average. Three of 15 lifts are open at The Lecht.
Scandinavia: Recent heavy snowfalls and cold temps have benefited Norway, Sweden and Finland. Hemsedal in Norway has all its tows fired up and plenty of white gold.
Andorra: The slopes are less brown than a few weeks ago. Some fresh neige has topped up the manmade. Soldeu is roughly 95% open.
Spain: Reasonable conditions. Sierra Nevada, in the South, is around 80% operational. It last snowed significantly there in Jan.
Mediterranean: Resorts in Portugal, Corsica and Cyprus have useful coverage. Troodos in Cyprus has 3 of 5 pistes available to the public.
France: The French Alps and the Vosges have been battered over the last few days. SnowHeads report the best riding of the season to-date. Chamonix has a 230cm snowpack at 1900 meters. Les Deux Alpes has slightly above-average snowdepths and is about 85% open.
Switzerland: The Swiss Alps look mostly good. Zermatt, in the West, has 80% of its uplift available. On the Eastern side, shredders have access to 71% of all the pistes in Davos.
Italy: A very good start to the season has faded slightly over the last month. But still plenty on offer. Cervinia has 75% of lifts on the go. Bormio is 93% operational.
Germany: The runs are whiter than a few weeks ago. Still modest at lower altitudes. Garmisch has two-thirds of its tows fired up.
Austria: Austria, like France, has received some much-needed snow this past week. St Anton has seen at least a half-meter of freshies. Saalbach is offering 53 of its 55 lifts.
Alps: The best conditions are above roughly 1500 meters in the Alps. Highish temps mean some lower slopes have experienced moderate rain during the last few days.
CE Europe: Reasonably good snow across Poland, Czech Rep, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovakia, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Turkey. Borovets in Bulgaria has reported big dumps in recent weeks and almost all its lifts are open.
North Africa & Middle East: Snowcover, in places such as Lebanon and Morocco, is healthy. Faraya Mzaar, the largest station in Lebanon, is running all its 18 chairlifts and buttonlifts.
India: Conditions are good. Plenty of freshies in the North. Gulmarg, the number one station, is forecasting modest snow for most of the next 7 days.
China: Coverage is reasonable. Yabuli (1400m), the leading resort in China, is operating most of its uplift. Temps at the summit of Mount Everest have been around a chilly -40c / -40f this week.
South Korea: Good snowfalls during Feb have helped most stations, like High 1, to keep many lifts running. PyeongChang, in Kangwon Province, has been bidding recently to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, and the dumps have been a welcome sight.
Japan: Snowdepths are healthy but slightly below-average. Kiroro Snow World, in Hokkaido, has a huge 310cm at 1200 meters, but this is roughly 30% lower than its longterm mean for the time of year.
FORECAST: The 2-week weather forecasts indicate mixed conditions. Sun and a bit of snow across Western North America. A little snow in Eastern USA. Asia looks to be snowy in parts, with sun for Japan. The Alps should see plenty of precip. However, temps will be above-average, with the rain-snow border hovering around 1500 to 1800 meters.
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Please remember, this summary is a helicopter view. I have almost certainly missed something. Feel free to fill in the gaps.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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People that try to summarise the whole world's weather in a single page are losers.
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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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there's gratitude..................
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Whitegold, wow did you do all that from your helicopter? 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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cforcat, knowing Tea Leaf as I do, I would suspect that the comment was intended humourously and is linked to the fact that Whitegold's catchphrase is "anyone that does *** is a loser" (where *** can be anything from one day skiing, wearing mittens, using blades, driving a BMW etc etc etc).
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Ray Zorro, Nice expanation Mr Moderator 
Just looked atthe Tignes website and only about 15% of the runs open today. 5 out of 90 lifts running. Avalanche risk must be fairly massive.
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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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| Quote: |
Just looked atthe Tignes website and only about 15% of the runs open today. 5 out of 90 lifts running. Avalanche risk must be fairly massive.
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Wow! Just looked at the Les Saisies site, all lifts and practically all runs open. Sometimes being in a flatter resort can have its compensations.
Looks like excellent prospects in the next 10 days for many of the French resorts with access to higher slopes. Depression after depression marching across the Atlantic with nothing to stop them. How long before people start complaining about too much snow and poor vis?? Less good for places below the pluie/neige limit.
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Hmm. Looks a bit grim at Wengen at the moment. SCGB rep reports:
Piste Information
On piste: Packed
Off piste: Heavy
Resort runs: Artificial
Reps Comments:
High winds caused the closure of many key lifts and runs including the Mannlichen cable car, Lager and Wixi. Visibility was also poor. Not a day for the fair weather skier.
Metcheck is scarcely optimistic, either. Best get some snowdances in before the MSB. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Frosty the Snowman, The 150km/h wind probably has something to do with it aswell!
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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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Whitegold, where did you copy the report from?
India looks a great destination does Ryanair fly there?
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233-317cm of fresh snow in Alpine Meadows in the last week.
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You know it makes sense.
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Wear The Fox Hat, Where is Alpine meadows? any where near Faraya Mzaar in the Lebanon?
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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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skimottaret, it's in California.
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Poster: A snowHead
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[quote="Frosty the Snowman"]
| Quote: |
Just looked atthe Tignes website and only about 15% of the runs open today. 5 out of 90 lifts running. Avalanche risk must be fairly massive. |
When does the SCGB update their web sites ? Its true that at 10.00am only 5 lifts were running but by lunchtime many more areas had been made secure and the lifts opened.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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stewart woodward, SCGB always seem to be a day or so behind on their reports. Also, I am not sure that the resort sites are always accurate, not to the minute anyway, and may show the picture at 9am when the lifts open and are not necessarily updated until the following day. Obviously if there has been snowfall overnight or high winds, the remaining lifts may open later. There are some lifts that hardly open at all. A particular chairlift in Monetier for example, runs only when it is windy and the top lifts are closed, and the lifts in LDA that are open for the summer skiing. With snowdepths there now at seasonal average, I think the ones that are closed will be due to high winds, avalanche risk or mechanical failure. As I leave for Serre Che in 2 weeks, keep those fronts charging in, and may the sun come out in 2 weeks.
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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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pam w, Last weeks guests (and I thought I knew some party animals, wow...) didn't get to the point of complaining but I know they wanted a few more sunny days... 
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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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Scotland is starting to look pretty good and there are loads of lows set to track that way this week
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