 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Swirly, could you rub it in any more 
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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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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, fancy the chopper trip to alpe d'uez ?
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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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Hey swirly, it was in the papers today that the £ went down to just e1.07!! Thats gotta be pretty bad news for you guys out there all season! How many euro is an average pint out there?
Hope your enjoying all this fresh powder! 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Ok here's the promised photos of the storm:
The view from our balcony from Tuesday till yesterday.
The view on diable or anywhere else for that matter, this was Wednesday, there was up to 2ft of fresh in places and it was going to snow for another day!
Looking back from the bottom of the red eggs, check out how much is on those trees. (Also Wed)
Yesterday was much the same except there was even more snow, it stopped at about the point where to keep going on a 25 degree slope you had to just point straight down the hill, it's got to waist deep on me in places and I'm 6ft 2. Trust me I've done extensive depth testing  Anyway because of the snow and light I decided to stay in for a while and do more work (yawn) fortunately for me Mr Lizzard called so I went out early afternoon into the storm. We went over most of the places that were open riding varying depths of powder on the pistes and slightly off the sides. He then kindly showed me the best way down the mountain which I think we'll be using for some time.
Today was blue skies again, unfortunately gorilla was still waiting for UPS (don't get them to deliver to the Alps) fortunately he eventually turned up. But for me it was the day to be on the first lift, I headed up the red eggs and met easiski briefly at the top, however, my plan was to get high and see what the results of the last 3 days were. It was quite impressive:
View over the glacier (off piste) from the signal chair.
View towards Mt Blanc
I lapped up there a few times before the crowds made their way up, straight lining the side of dome a few times as it was infeasibly deep and to turn would have stopped me. Next it was off for a few laps of the bellcombes chair, there's normally a few bits of that which get left ungroomed so I thought it was a good idea to take a look. However, as I got to the top it was pretty obvious that the grand couloir was now open so that was the target. I hit it three times and although fairly well travelled there was some super deep stuff, fortunately this time with the gradient:
Grand Couloir this morning.
By now I'd covered some ground and being alone hadn't stopped so I decided to hit a couple of my favourite runs then head down to the bottom off the Jandri. I hadn't even taken one bite of my tartiflette sandwich when gorilla arrived having finally caught the UPS guy. Lunch was put on hold and we shot back up to the glacier (I did eat it in the lift) where we hit some of the better runs from this morning and it was generally successful although I was knackered by now (well my back leg was) and had a bit of a moment that involved a very tiring hike out of some waist deep stuff. We finished up with a quick shoot down the grand couloir (4th time for me):
gorilla in the couloir.
By the end I'd been out for 6 hrs only stopping for lifts so decided I needed a beer (and to say  to evryone in an office). Tomorrows forecast to be sunny again so I might take the SLR up the hill as then an even bigger dump is in the offing 
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you lucky lucky thing
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OMG ... that is amazing !!! You are one lucky boy being there this season. I have goose bumps looking at those piccies, more so cos I recognise the area .. keep 'em coming monsieur 
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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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for my own sanity I need to ignore this thread from now on..
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Swirly, Chuffed to bits for ya
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Kruisler, don't worry, I am probably going to be in the area at the end of Jan so conditions will certainly suck by then 
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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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Arno, I don't know it's looking even more epic for next week atm! Apparently this is the best early season for 10-15 years. Maybe by the time you get here we'll be looking for a break and longing for breakable crust and ice... (maybe not)! I just wish the snowpack would stabilise a bit, sadly from what we've seen this could take quite a while so we might be talking about the same slopes come end of Feb as we're doing now, although La Grave opens on the 20th so that gives some options come new year.
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Swirly, you need a bunch of Scandinavians to find the weak points in the snowpack
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You know it makes sense.
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Swirly, fantastic pictures. Really great to hear what you're up to, too. What a start.
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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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Swirly, Dude - you picked a good year to do a season. Stunning pics and dont use up all my snow! 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Great pics of great snow, can't wait till we're out there (only 8 more getups )
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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4 more sleeps 
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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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Swirly, the season is looking good for you
nice pics!
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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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Hordes? How late did you lot get out of bed? This is how busy it was at 09:30.
 [/quote]
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Lizzard, first lift as always, it was more a reflection on the amount of people in town, still not had to queue for a lift other than the Jandri Express first thing.
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Lizzard, you lucky girl !! fancy trading places for a while
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We were up for first lift but got caught behind Frenchmen with enormous skis between the red eggs and the next chair. It wasn't that bad really but we've been spoilt.
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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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So today was very windy, so windy they've taken the eggs and pots in. It was possible to get to 2100m and just above by chair but given it was a Sunday we decided not to bother. We planned to drive to Briancon but the Col du Lauteret was closed, possibly due to a large avalanche sweeping over the road just before Les Freaux. Anyway that aborted the plan (they could do with an open/closed sign at the bottom of the resort road to be honest). So to make the most of having driven down decided to do some shopping, unfortunately the Casino in Bourg d'Oisans is closed on Sundays. So having driven around a bit for no reason we headed home, on leaving Bourg d'Oisans we picked up a hitcher heading for La Grave. He had tried to get the bus but due to the col closure none were running. Anyway it was a good chance to test our French, it turned out he was a liftie from La Grave and as it opens on Sat he was heading up to set up the lift/make repairs etc during the week. He was a great source of info: contrary to what we were told here our passes are valid there even if the link is shut except for Saturdays and holidays which was nice to find out, he also does the area forecasts for Meteo France and among other things confirmed some of our suspicions about the snowpack instability issue. He was giving us so much info and I had nothing better to do so decided to carry on as far as possible. When we got there a snowplough had cleared a route so we took him to his flat and he bought us a drink and gave us loads more info so in the end it wasn't a wasted trip at all, in fact we were pretty pleased with what we got out of it in the end. Only issue we had was on leaving La Grave I decided to drive on the left* this was corrected by the snowplough which had now cleared the road and as I quickly moved over to the right I got a slight fishtail going, fortunately I managed to correct it, no doubt in some way due to the winter tyres we now possess but I won't be trying to repeat it in a hurry.
* one advantage of Sat Navs is they remind you not to do this at the start of every journey, yes you should remember but driving is practically an unconscious skill: this is my justification for being a bit thick.
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Much calmer today, at least at the village level. We headed up mid morning, no point waiting with the holiday makers for first lifts when there's no fresh snow The effects of the wind are pretty obvious, a lot more rocks are visible but the pistes have held up pretty well, some bits are a bit scoured but to balance that there's some nice little pockets of windblown stuff. gorilla had his new skis out which was interesting and we moved about the mountain checking them out.
Finished the morning by finally taking a top to bottom time, I scored 16 minutes 20 from the top of the funicular to the bottom of the white eggs, not too quick but not too shabby either. Think with a better choice of line I can easily break 15 minutes but will be interesting to see what it is by the end of the season.
There was a cool cloud inversion but my point and shoot didn't want to play ball annoyingly. I think there will be plenty more though so not too much of an issue. The avvy risk has dropped a bit but most people get caught at 3 and the snowpack now has a lot of wind loading going on so it's still best to play safe kids. It's all tracked out anyway.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Swirly, Good news about those pistes holding up. 16.20?? that sounds sssllloooowwwwwww. Easiski, Lizzard, what's a respectable time?
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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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red 27, you're asking women that question? What makes you think we waste our time with that sort of pointless willy-waving?
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Lizzard, i bet you stop half way to put some lippie on anyway
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You know it makes sense.
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At my age I would need to stop half way down and wave my willy at some porcelain (not Jerry's teeth)
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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Swirly, stuning photos and what a place to write up your thesis! Academics don't get paid much but we do get to write up research in the best of places!
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Okey Dokie it's been a while! Mainly I haven't been online except for a quick (very slow) diversion to email at 50Mb thesis chapter to my supervisor.
There is one good reason for this, as mentioned above seven guys turned up for the xmas week and a good time was had by all. I'm uploading a video to youtoob atm but given thats almost 200Mb it could take a while. Anyway lets start where I left off.
Last Saturday they finally opened my side of the mountain, it gets quite a bit of abuse from the sun and the pistes are all pretty steep but given it had just opened the snow was magnificent. Unfortunately I was by myself, however, a few powder stashes were noted to show the imminent arrivals. I bumped into rayscoops midafternoon and we headed back to mine for a quiet beer. The crew from the UK (who are mainly Aussies) turned up and managed to get to the bar by 9.30 so we had a quiet pint and arranged to meet the next day on the hill. Sunday was then a chance for them to get their legs back although I managed to watch the most impressive stck/heroic ski recovery from the Alaskan guy who'd spent the previous night at mine. We missed at sharp bend on a black run and ended up in avalanche debris fortunately for me I was slightly further right and made it to the piste, however, he was stuck in a rock band, he spotted a small gap and hucked over it. This is where things went wrong, Thai normally telemarks and went for a tele landing getting very backseat, he then had to make a turn on a pretty steep slope with debris to avoid another rock section. Things went to pot and he left a ski behind while cartwheeling a good 100m. After this I'd probably sit there for a while saying ow, not Thai, he jumps straight up (swearing) kicks the remaining ski off and bootpacks back up the slope (high 30's maybe 40 degrees) to his ski, puts it on and rides back to the other on one ski  .
Monday we headed to my side for the promise of some soft stuff we went to the trees (almost the only ones here) and put in some lines:
Thai, Alaskan Style
The Good Doctor
Tuesday was a repeat and then Wednesday was Xmas eve, it appears this is quite a big night out in these parts and who are we to break with tradition? We started early
4pm on the hill doing what comes naturally
It got later (sunset over the Pied Moutet section from Valentin)
And the festivities started.
Everyone had a good night although we were a little late up the next day
Xmas Day was fun, I might edit this later but you need to see the film it puts it better than I ever could 
The week ended with more partying and a lot more boarding most of the group left last night and the final stragglers were on the 8am bus today. Gorilla got back last night and we're looking forward to some more serious riding on a much more stable snowpack. Could use some more powder though
Merry Christmas Everyone.
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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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Sounds far more exciting than my day of queens speech, 2 episodes of Eastenders and a 7 hour monopoly session !
Looking forwards to seeing the video
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Can't connect to Youtube atm 
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nice touch with the santa suits
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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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NYE was pretty much as we’d been warned, fortunately the couple of inches of snow that had fallen allowed everyone to throw snowballs at each other rather than whatever other missiles came to hand. We had a quiet night in the local which was what the owner was wanting and we left him manning the barricade some time before one. There was a good reason for this relatively early night though, we wanted to hit La Grave in the morning and success was ours.
The first téléphérique of 2009 was ours and we headed out to the Vallons de la Meije where the wind had helped the new snow drift to a decent level and gave us some lovely powder to play with.
Gorilla
Sam
Me
Although the wind had set up the Vallons de la Meije quite nicely it had scoured the Vallons De Chancel and similar aspects so we decided to lap that, the snowfall made it possible to ride down to P1. For those who don’t know La Grave the lift is a relatively unique experience. It’s made of a number of sets of cars seating 6 each and as a set passes through a station the whole lift slows to allow (dis)embarkation. On the first stage an addition lift station has been built on one of the pylons meaning you don’t have to ride all the way down if the snow is poor and the lift can be taken from here (P1) in either direction. To get to P1 involves a traverse through the forest which gets bumpy fast, in fact the whole area gets bumpy fast I’d say between our 3rd and 4th the bumps grew by over 50cm on the first section of descent. Add to that the bumps are a weird shape (possibly caused by a mix of fat skis and boards) and it makes for a fun ride. I took a pole to help but on this traverse it wasn’t needed it’s not completely flat and there are occasional chances to scrub of speed, the other traverse is said to be a bit more awkward though.
All the lift you need.
La Grave was a great day, to get fresh tacks when L2A would be full of Italians nursing hangovers was a fantastic experience and the whole area and views were exceptional.
La Meije
View from the La Grave Cablecar
Sunday 04 Jan 2009
After a couple of days cruising pistes and suffering from a cold it was time to do something I’d said I’d never do again. As a result Saturday night found me in ski extreme hiring raquettes. Our target was a beautiful line of a ski tour on the map up the Vallon de Fontenil. A good days walk/ride of about 5.5km and 1350m of ascent over a fairly continuous gradient that meant it should make a nice board down.
Route photo to come
Unfortunaltey the lightweight bag I packed precluded taking the SLR, gorilla and I both had point and shoots but the cold put paid to the batteries before we could take any pictures. The valley itself is fairly wide and of a relatively continuous gradient. A nice skin track had already been put in and walking in the snowshoes wasn’t a problem and we covered 400m of ascent per hour for the first 3 hours however on the top section below the col the wind had blown some sugary stuff making walking a nightmare. The ground steepened and the shoes had to come off for the final 40m of bootpacking which was hard work, in all it took a good 45 minutes for the final 80m. The view over the ridge was amazing although there was a goodly cornice to watch out for. Some food and water and it was time for the fun part. The run down was more than worth the walk, certainly this is what touring is about (unlike that day in ValT) 5.5km of mainly powder and few enough tracks to look back at your own: happy days.
Today
Not boarding today but time to hit La Grave for what made me first aware of it: not only an off piste mecca but one of Europe’s number one ice climbing destinations.
Sam and Me on the ice
We soloed the first half a pitch to a bolt belay where prudence took over and we decided to rope up, although we had nowhere near enough time to complete the route it was nice to get on it and see what the crack was. Sam lead up and I followed, it was a good learning curve for proper European ice and we’ll be back on it as soon as the extra ice screws we’ve ordered rock up.
Sam leading up the ice fall
Here we go, me following.
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Looks awesome! Glad to see you're making the most of your time out there 
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FAQ
map. Here we go, here we go, here we go ......, here we go, here we go, here we go ........ 
Possibly one for a sig quote there. Nothing more to say really, if anyone makes it out here send me a message and we can go for a slide and/or a beer.