 Poster: A snowHead
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I should be strapping my board on in Morzine 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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me too, well my board anyway, waxed it last night too 
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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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Hot waxed board returning home tonight over here too
Going to be packed up ready for some action on Monday morning!
Anyone else noticed that Friday afternoon is dragging on a little...
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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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It is dragging, hour and a half till I can go to the pub, then I can go home finish packing and go for the pre-trip curry. 
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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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AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Have fun guys, I am sobbing into my keyboard as I too should of been on the slopes from tomorrow .
Gutted of middlesex
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i should have been in L2A this week, but my travel mates let me down. having a job/baby is not good reason not to snowboard - in fact it's just the opposite i think!
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counting down the hours myself, think i am driving all the customers insane by my unexplainable good mood- if i get asked again 'but won't it be cold over there?' by one more person
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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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Swirly, Have fun mate. I'm almost packed for les Arcs so I'll prob see you at the airport. Damn early flight though 
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DebbiDoesSnow, what happened? Why aren't you going to be on slopes? 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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Swirly, you swine 
Will have a little looky later
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OK here goes. When I started this thread it was one of those days at work when you've been clock watching since 10am. 5 o'clock finally arrived and instead of going straight home to finish packing I went to the pub: may as well start in style as this is officially holiday time needless to say when I got home I had an hour to finish packing, bath and shave before getting round to the house we were being picked up from and going for the traditional pre-flight curry. Somehow I managed this only 15 minutes late and we had the curry followed by a few pints then a pathetic amount of sleep which was ended by me putting my hand on a slug at 5am: don't you love student houses
Saturday: The great thing about Morzine is the proximity to Geneva: get the early flight and you can be on the slopes for lunch. We arrived a bit late (spot the pattern yet?) but got shuffled into a specific GVA queue and shuffled through a fairly long queue for security. Getting on the plane was achieved with a lot less fuss than last year when 3 flights were queuing in the same place and we almost ended up in Amsterdam. I bumped into Scarpa, briefly in the queue/on the plane had a chat about this seasons trips and looking forwards to repeating the journey to the EoSB in a couple of weeks. Some of us were pretty worn out:
Still we got there to find some nice snow and a few hours boarding/skiing in the Morzine/Les Gets area to get the legs in shape for the coming onslaught.
Sunday: Up nice and early to grab the first bus to the Avoriaz cable car after a breakfast kindly delivered by the Chez Celine bakery and the use of all my sadly poor French language skills. Early turned out to be far too early so we got a bus to the super-morzine gondola which we were promised started by 8.30. Despite staying next to the lift for the previous 3 days this turned out to be wrong so we waited until 8.45 still this meant we could have an extra 30 minutes in bed every morning. We managed to lose two of the group at the top of the lift and by mid-morning another 3 had gone the same way. The snow was nice: not hard but not slushy, off piste was breakable crust so most of the time was spent on piste. I was still struggling to get used to riding duck although it was beginning to come along which was more than could be said about the previous afternoon. We paired the group down again and a few of us headed over to Plaine Dranse hitting the red and black off the Chaux Fleurie (sp) lift. The light went flat late on but we stayed out to the last lift.
Monday: Still no snow but it was promised over night and lesson learnt we got the bus to Les Prodains loose groups had formed in the party (total size 16) of people of similar ability and we all planned to meet in Linga for lunch. The crust had gone from the off piste so we spent numerous runs down around the park off the back of Pre la Joux. This resulted in one of the best crashes I've ever witnessed, unfortunately due to laughter no pictures exist, one of the most experienced skiers in our group hit a big wind lip, however, as he rode up his weight went back resulting in a perfect half somersault. On landing this was followed by the remaining half rotation back over the lip and down the 8ft banking leaving one ski on the top and a nice walk of shame. We repeated this run by numerous variations before lunch and again on the way back from Linga. We headed back to Avoriaz and the clouds arrived with some light snow. The day was finished inauspiciously by chickening out of the coupe du monde due to some of the biggest moguls I've ever seen.
Tuesday: Evening rain in Morzine had been replaced by a dusting of still falling snow, we decided to stay low and all the boarders headed up Pleney. We were among the first up Nyon which hadn't been pisted and rode down putting fresh tracks in a good foot of perfect snow. The run was repeated twice more as it got progressively busier so we left and headed towards Les Gets. More snow began to fall and it was clear today was going to be an epic. Although the light was pretty good we headed into the trees off the reds and blacks in the large bowl above Les Gets. The snow was some of the best I've ever been on and had built up to 1-2ft untracked powder. Unfortunately my camera batteries ran out and I forgot I had spares but I snapped these two just beforehand:
Where we came from:
Where we went (straight down):
We missed the lunchtime appointment but after a quick stop went to find more trees as more people were hitting the previous set. A few runs were discovered the first of which started down a steep slope before diving right and opening out into a glorious bowl. Some tight turns through the trees then a small jump onto a path and back into an open slope of powder, 50m of piste to the lift rinse and repeat. The second was a more devious line the once ended up with us missing the exit and Aussie Dave swinging from a tree branch. The one more run philosophy ended in a mad dash to make the lifts and one final track off the Stade back into town for €3 pints in the coyote bar. One of my top 3 days on a board ever.
Wednesday: the worst weather I've ever ridden in: heavy rain in Morzine didn't change to snow until halfway up the Intrets chair in Avoriaz where it was joined by strong winds. By the second run down 6 had become 4 and we headed to the park where it became two, two runs through the park and it would have become zero except I lost the remaining member and decided to head down. This would be a good time to try and ride switch so I flicked the board round and slowly rode towards super-morzine. Half-way down I overtook one of our skiers who was trying boarding. On reaching the chair he wasn't that far behind me so I went up again with him and trying to ride switch meant he could almost keep up. We decided to meet up with anyone who was still out and 7 of us drank chocolate chaud and did laps down to Ardent. We decided to slowly make our way back at about 3 and that proved to be a good decision as the super-morzine area was now closed and we were sent back up to Avoriaz. On arrival no lifts were running bar the cable car and all runs were shut so it was straight down and home for a shower before going to town for a deserved pint. The only consolation was the thought of Tuesdays last runs being worth it.
Thursday: A sunny start but being unsure of the state of the pistes I swapped onto my old wild duck. It was very icy to start and off-piste was a no go horror show. We headed to Linga intending to get the bus to Chatel and return through Morgins and Les Crosets. However, it turned out the piste down to Linga was closed for racing and we would have to get a drag back up with about 1 million other people who had missed the sign. The size of the queue prompted the pisteurs to open the fence and let people through to a closed blue. The traverse to this run was completed by ollieing over assorted skis and racers to get onto the track. The number of stones explained why this piste was closed and I was very glad to be on the old board. The only bit of joy was when the piste opened onto the race run and we had to ride down a 4m wide area half of which was piles of slush. While the skiers dithered on the scraped part I chucked the board onto the slush and opened up. The wait at the drag changed our plans and we headed back and over to les crosets. On arrival at the top of the Mousettes chair the la frontaliere snowcross was being opened up so another change of plan and we dropped in. This was a run I had an epic on last year in low snow and at one point I'd avoided a cliff by grabbing hold of a fence! This time only 6 inches of that fence was visible and missing the gap wouldn't be quite so terminal still I was happy to make the gap in slightly icy conditions and on getting through the snow changed to beautiful spring snow we flew down with a brief stop where I misjudged a wind lip and catapulted myself off a step but it was nothing compared to Will's earlier mishap. At the bottom we decided on a repeat but tracked out right on the bottom of the run for some more fresh tracks. Next time up we went down to Les Crosets via my favourite piste in the area then up over the wall to hit the canyon and some more off piste in the Chavenettes bowl. The wall looked very tempting but I'd avoided it last year in fresh conditions would I have the balls to go for it this time? I can't remember much of that night but apparently I was found asleep on the kitchen floor at 1am.
Friday: Miraculously with no hangover only three of us made the first bus for similar conditions to the Thursday. The ice was avoided by using the snowpark for an hour while everything softened. The rail at the top of the park tempted me and valour got the better of discretion.
Somehow I didn't fall off, unlike Will who planted both tips coming off the box giving him a second perfect half somersault of the week. The two of us headed out across the Portes du Soleil meeting some of the stragglers on the way to Morgins coming back towards les Crosets we found another lovely line of spring snow our descent was terminated by the realisation the piste had gone well left of us and if we carried on we'd be back in Morgins with little chance of making the lifts. The 500m climb back was well worth the turns though (we'd got significantly more descent anyway). Will getting back to the piste:
We arrived back into a slushy Les Crosets catching the rest of our group on the way and carried on to Avoriaz. At the bottom of the wall the others in the group stopped for vin chaud but Will looked at me and said "come on". Spurred on by the threat of a pink dress I got on the chair. We headed to the top of the wall and the big set of bumps at the top. Deciding not to think about it I followed Will over the edge and surprised myself by getting the first couple of turns in with no drama at all. We'd decided to track left out the bumps and get on the steep slope at the side where the snow looked great so with a pause to let a skier side slip down we carried on with no more stops and no falls. To be honest the snow was perfect if there was a hint of ice I wouldn't have been there especially after seeing someone fall a good way earlier in the week and once they'd stopped and had their ski returned they fell again
The Wall:
Post Wall glow (or sunburn):
Getting the chair back up we hit some more off piste in the Chavenettes bowl finding a line with one huge windlip and one smaller one that had some funny consequences for the more novice skiers.
Cath in the foreground has just collected her skis one of which was stuck vertical in the snow, Claire in the background has both skis still on, unfortunately for her the tails are stuck up to the bindings!
Will and I then finished off coming down the Combe du Machon black which had bigger bumps than the wall but the largest problem was the moguls on the lower red which killed our tired legs.
Saturday: The final day so back up to repeat some good runs after an hour in the park to soften the snow it was down to Ardent then over to Les Crosets back to the canyon in Chavenettes, through the park a last time to get a crepe and beer in Morzine to take on the minibus. The day ended in the same curryhouse we'd been in only 8 days ago although somehow it felt like an age.
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You know it makes sense.
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And breathe ....... blimey did you write a diary so you could remember all those piste names ?
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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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DebbiDoesSnow, no but when I was writing that I wished I had. We did a fair bit more, that's just the highlights of each day really! I'm quite good at remembering where I've been though. Last year out there was different two of the group had done a season in Ardent so they took us everywhere and I didn't have a clue, the whiteouts didn't help then though.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Sounded like great fun (apart from the rain bit), will have to have another look later so i can see the pics that go with it.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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DebbiDoesSnow, all my pics are on facebook but copied a couple to here for the people that don't use that.
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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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off to soll early on saturday. hopfully it will keep snowing this week. looking good so far. 5 days to go and i;m already thinking about packing .
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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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Swirly Great write up. It's a fantastic area. Wish i was going again this 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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Great write-up. Looking at mine, I'm all descriptions until I hit the slopes, then I disappear into a whirlwind of snowboarding and alcohol poisoning, only to emerge at the other end a happy and broken man 
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FAQ
