 Poster: A snowHead
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OK I know its a bit early to look back on the season overall but it doesn't look as though its promising to be a May ski fest except for the very high resorts. SO...
We have never had such pessimism about the ski industry, resort conditions, the future...
...but has anyone had a truly unrepeatable cr*p holiday?
My 2 trips have been really enjoyable, not lifetime memorable gems, but worth the expense, and the first deposit is down for next year already.
Tell it as you feel it....
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 7-04-07 22:00; edited 1 time in total
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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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All my skiing this season has been enjoyable, and always enough snow to have fun with. Only two occasions have been hampered by snow conditions, both the result of too much snow. For me it's not been a great season so far for vast quantities of snow, but no desperate shortages either.
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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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I've had three trips so far (not really counting the PSB) and conditions on all three have been good. Admittedly the three were Cervinia, Les 2 Alpes and Obertauern, so you would expect them to be snow-sure.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Our apartment is at 1500m with no skiing above 2000m. We have been here since the end of December except for the four French holiday weeks and have had quite a lot of friends and visitors. Apart from the first afternoon we were here, when the snow was dire, it's been fine. My daughter and boyfriend went out snowboarding that afternoon (beginners) and struggled with the narrow ribbons of snow getting off the chairlifts. They admitted that conditions were just as horrible as they looked. But then - woke to powder next morning, lots of it, and being beginner boarders they abandoned them and had an incredible day on skis in the powder. Our pistes are on pasture, and don't need much snow cover. Since then there have only been a few decent dumps but they have come just in time to keep conditions good and there has been loads of sunshine. The pistes have been kept in very good shape, even one of the south facing black run is still skiable at the moment, though it has been closed at times throughout the season. The lower slopes in the Val D'Arly, though, have been very poor almost all season and one very steep drag lift has been closed for all except a few weeks. The lovely long run down to Hauteluce, at 1100m, has had a bad year, with the ground just too warm to retain snow for long. I feel sorry for the proprietors of the superb restaurant at the bottom, who must have had a very difficult year. It's not been a season for clocking up miles and I have missed being able to ski to our favourite restaurant in Flumet. More fresh snow would obviously have been welcome. But we are enjoying the spring snow at the moment, and just hoping that the very warm weather next week will not destroy the slopes before our last visitor departs on 17 April and we go off to LDA for a couple of days of Easiskiing. I'm already looking forward to the flowers, the oak and beech forests coming to life, the cows in the meadows, and that wonderful mountain summer. 
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despite the resort opening a week late, i can not complain about this season. There have been 2 periods of no snow for more than 2 weeks, dec and march, oh maybe jan we didn't have snow for 2 weeks, but on the whole there has been a dump of sorts every week or so!
And it seems there may be more to come next week!
Last year was one of the first years that all the links were open on the closing day of the resort (22nd despite half the resort remaining open but it was very very limited) At the moment the links are still all open, will they still be open in two week??? We will see eh!
definatley a very wierd winter as the south side has remaind green for most of it, but the ridable side has been great i have no complaints
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Of the 3 years I have lived here it's been the poorest by far but the last few weeks have been good.
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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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The poor report of snow condition has been widespread and upheld by web cams across the Alpes.
We took the decision to spend the last two weeks in March touring Switzerland, Italy and France and found good skiing in everywhere we go in Crans Montana, Verbier, Cervinia, Zermatt, Milky Way, Serre Chevalier, Alpe d'Heuz and Les Deux Alpes. With the exception of Milky Way and Serre Chevalier all the other resorts have piste above 3000m and are pretty safe when snow is in short supply. We were very lucky to hit snow when skiing the Milky Way and Serre Che. The former had the best snow condition of all the resorts we visited this year.
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yeah totally crap hol for me, second trip of the year was bulgaria/pamporovo, never again. crap snow/mud/rocks, huge queues....... never ever again
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Had two early trips (openeing weekend and Christmas week) to Val/Tignes. Snow was poor lower down, but still found some good skiing on the higher pistes. went to Pila in mid Jan and again had reasonable snow much of it man-made. then did Feb half term at Meribel and just back (yesterday) from Easter at Les Arcs. Both trips had bumper snow, great on and (just) off piste, restored my faith in Europe! overall, a great season, the poop in the press is just bollox.
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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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Lizzard, 
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You know it makes sense.
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Oh, and conditions have been fine during our 4 weeks in Serre Che this winter. Not brilliant, not outstanding, but we skied in fresh snow, and the link to the main ski area from Monetier was in very good condition, I have skied it in a much worse state. There was very little ice, and no nasty slush. Below 1700m was not brillian, but still skiable, and we had a great time. I think big thanks to the pisteurs of Serre Chevalier are needed for the great job they have done this winter.
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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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One trip to Zermatt/Cervinia, two to Megève. Conditions not "perfect" (whatever that is), but ample enjoyment every single day.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Both trips I've had so far have followd the same pattern: Arrive to patchy snow and very warm temperatures first day followed by a rapid drop and lots of snow. Maybe I've been lucky but where I've been conditions have been better thgis season than some past seasons and worse than others but overall I've been very happy. Hopefully the EoSB will continue this trend!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Lizzard, I was aiming at ski lessons, not board lessons, but Charlotte did say she had a great board instructor in LDA! I could certainly do with some good instruction.
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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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I think this season has worked out just about normal. It's true that the early snow wasn't good lower down, and to see the face now it does look a bit sad. OTOH we can't usually ski down anyway except Valentin in mid April - mainly because all the other runs are unpisted (not compressed) and don't have cannons. Last year was exceptional. Above 2000m the snow's been good since December, and is still good.
pam w, He's got some sort of family probs at the mom ent and isn't working.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I did have one very poor week for snow - Kitzbuhel in mid-Jan. But it was a very cheap trip and we had a great holiday and did manage to get some skiing in, so no complaints. Tignes in beginning of Dec the snow on the glacier was great quality, just nowhere else was open but again, no complaints for that early in the season & I was having good snoworks tuition anyway. And 2 weeks in Canada mid-March were good - not perfect but very good.
So not such great snow as we've been lucky enough to have previously but still a good season
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I was hoping we might have heard from timberwolf or lisach, but maybe they have cancelled all their trips? Glad to hear most of us have had some good snow and good snow time, if not a vintage season. 
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I've had a fantastic year - about the best yet
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Each season just gets later and later.
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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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| Scarpa wrote: |
| Each season just gets later and later. |
That seems to have been the case in the last few years, but if you're happy to ski on piste there's plenty of skiing to be done early. By Christmas I was on my third trip of the season, and thoroughly enjoyed each of them.
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| Quote: |
pam w, He's got some sort of family probs at the mom ent and isn't working.
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Well, that lets me off the hook then!!!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I agree with easiski, it's not so much that this season has been bad, it's just that last season was exceptional and any comparison is going to suffer. I've learned a lot about handling more extreme conditions this year though, ice and slush, so it's been good from the POV of not caring what one encounters and just skiing it anyway. And enjoyed the lot (although I'm still holding out for another day before the skis go away)
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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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I have had over 3 weeks of very good conditions, no complaints from me at all. Skiing over 2000 mtrs has been great IMV.
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eng_ch and easiski, I wonder if conditions in Les Deux Alpes were rather different compared to the the alps futher north.
I did not think last year an exceptional year at all. Certainly nowhere near as good as the two previous years. It did however end rather well
The picture shows the snow levels for La Plagne as published by the Ski Club of Great Britain.
The top graph shows the average levels over the last 13 years.
The bottom graph shows the season 2005-2006.
Last season things were pretty dire until week 12 which coincided with half term.
The graphs for Val Thorens are very similar.
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You know it makes sense.
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Jonpim, perhaps you could do a similar comparison for LDA, most of us can't access the historical snow reports?
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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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Jonpim, interesting graphs, would be great to see for other resorts/countries...
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Poster: A snowHead
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Helen Beaumont, here is the data for Les Deux Alpes as requested.
I was reluctant to post the data for Les Deux Alpes for 2 reasons:
1. The identical recordings of snow depths for weeks in succession with neat round whole numbers of 10s made me suspicious of the data for last season (2005-2006): the upper slopes are a constant 180cm from week 13 to week 20, and lower slopes 70cm over the same period.
2. The ski club database has an unfortunate habit of changing the scale (probable using that infuriating microsoft Access) which made the readings for last season look rather better than they actually were. I have altered the 2005-2006 season graph with photoshop so the x-axis also goes up to 250, to make it look similar to the 13 year average graph (blooming fiddly, I can tell you!)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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In Les Gets in Feb and caught some decent snow but had the usual rain in the resort - but nothing unusual in that. Season in PDS started badly I think but has improved as the season went on. Certainly no the "end of the ski industry" the papers were writing about at Christmas
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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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Leaving aside plastic and indoor snow this is my season so far:
Skiing in Scotland in early December - decent conditions.
Skiing in Les Gets over Xmas - bit crap, about 15% of area open, icy and nasty on piste but made the best of it brushing up on technique.
Skiing in Mammoth, California in February - bloody marvelous, 3/4 feet of powder some nights and hill loaded with snow - all in all brilliant.
Planning another trip before the season is out, perhaps back to North America (Whistler?) or Les Deux but we'll see.
So mixed but you've gotta remember somewhere like Les Gets is low down and conditions can be variable particularly early in the season, this year I think it very much depended on where you went. All in all a good, but not brilliant, year though and I'm craving more of the white stuff!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Two trips this year:
Pyrenees at Christmas/ New Year. Started well but got very thin as the holiday went on. However, there were always pistes to ski, and the lack of snow led to me sticking some skins on for the first time, and learning a new skill. You just need to be prepared to work a bit harder for your descents!
Chamonix in early March. Superb snow, blue skies, empty pistes. As good as any other year, and we've skied the same week for the last seven years now. Beautiful.
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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La Rosiere opened on the 16th Dec as scheduled and has been open continuously since, none of our guests has lost any ski time due to lack of snow cover, most expressed surprise at seeing so much snow, they had all read the gloom and doom reports in the UK media. The season has been a bit mixed and will probably end up as a bit less than average. Xmas week wasn't too good, it hadn't snowed for at least 2 weeks prior to Xmas and pistes were a tad icy in places with about half the runs unavailable but the skiing in Italy was superb and the weather stayed cold so what snow there was stayed. The pisteurs worked very hard to ensure that all the runs that were open remained open, then we had snow in January, and lots more in Feb, just in time for FtS's visit, 1/2 term weeks were really good, just about all the runs were open by then and conditions were terrific. March skiing was fantastic, the middle two weeks of March had some of the best conditions I've ever experienced, in fact, I think the 2nd week of March was probably the best week's skiing I've experienced, fabulous sunny weather, great snow and no crowds. There's still almost 3 metres of snow at altitude and nearly a metre in the village so the skiing looks good until the 27th Apr when the resort closes.
Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Tue 10-04-07 14:58; edited 1 time in total
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David@traxvax, A family that has been with us to La Ros in 05 & 06 came with us to the 3v last week. They will have said already that their choice of resort for 08 will be La Rosiere.
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Like lots of peeps we are tied to school holidays but have been very lucky this season with snow, sunshine and specifically very little flat light.
First week of January in Chamonix / Cormayeur / Argenterre / Verbier it snowed mid week; second week of February in Lenzerheide it snowed mid week. Last week in la Thuile it snowed mid week.
Each time we had a day to see the resort followed by heavy snow (long lunch etc) and then sunshine to enjoy it in. oh and Sunday in church of course.
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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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1 week in Livigno for me, it snowed every day. Not a hint of a complait from me!
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Best Powder Day of my season? December 10th.
Second Best...about January 3rd.
Next best...Wednesday of 1/2 term week.
This may not have been a Vintage Season....but we've had 7 trips, and never once had a lack of snow problem.
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FAQ
