 Poster: A snowHead
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Having been to Montgenevre last weekend and due to go in 3 weeks again, I have been keeping an eye on the snow forecast quite keenly.
I don't think it has snowed there for a number of weeks now, and the forecast is for sun, sun, sun for as long as any forecast dares to predict. Every now and then some snow gets chucked onto the forecast 1 week out, then swiftly taken off again and replaced by sun.
WTF is going on?! Is this normal for this region? Is there some weird pressure stopping the white stuff landing in the Souther Alps? Last weekend you could tell that quite a few of the slopes had been scraped back to hard pack. Is my second ski trip going to be on pure ice?!
Anyone with a bit more meteorological nouse than me able to shed any light (in layman's terms)?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Timmycb5, Yes quite normal. They have periods with no snow and then mega dumps which to come up from the S/SE
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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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WTF is going on?! Is this normal for this region? Is there some weird pressure stopping the white stuff landing in the Souther Alps?
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Classic rain shadow.
Think of the Pennines in a south westerly flow. Yorkshire and County Durham will normally be drier and sunnier than Lancashire and Cumbria. The Alpine ridge shelters much of Italy away from the watershed, in a northerly or westerly flow. Avoriaz is the ‘Fortwilliam’ of the Alps and the Dolomites is Kent. 
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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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Yes, the Milky Way is in the rain shadow from "normal" low pressure systems coming from the west or north.
The region does best from low pressure systems which develop in the Mediterranean to the south(east). This is less frequent but can produce really large quantities of snow when it does happen.
From memory I think the Milky Way did quite well in November or early December from these weather setups, but it's been pretty quiet since then.
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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 was going to go there this weekend, but have changed to Austria much more snow than Italy or France.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Sometimes you dont have good seasons, just like sometimes you have snowmageddon.
Some resorts are more snowsure than others.
It can be weird going to one resort one year with a foot of snow in the Town, being below 1000meters to the same week the following year where there is no snow below 1700 meters.
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@red 27, @Timmycb5, this is not normal !!!
Via Lattea & Serre Chevalier normally rely on the same weather systems, though there can be substantial differences in accumulations!
The main system that delivers is the Retour D'est / Genoa Low
And @denfinella, is correct in that there were two Retours before the beginning of the season, and Serre Che missed the majority, so hence we were skinning up the pistes of Montgenevre before they opened.
The S slopes of the Via Lattea are brown, but other aspects are fine as it's been so cold, that is until yesterday!
So you think Via Lattea is bad, Serre Che is worse, and like I say, this is not normal now, as we have no snow forecast for at least another 12 days, and it's the same for the majority of resorts in the Hautes Alpes, and that will probably be close to 7 weeks without snow!
In fact Le Dauphine recently ran a feature about the situation
Pas de neige prévue dans les Alpes du Sud avant les vacances scolaires
https://c.ledauphine.com/environnement/2022/01/27/pas-de-neige-prevue-dans-les-alpes-du-sud-avant-les-vacances-scolaires
All that said, I've been ski-touring 4 x off the back of the Lattea on the French/Italian border and I've found very good accumulations.
Crête de Dormillouse, but anything S facing is brown!
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The one positive is that the temps were low enough to allow snow making a lot of the time - so between that and their piste maintenance the on piste skiing still seems reasonable. But if this keeps up for 2 more weeks - things will become very awkward!
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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 the first time I've seen on the forecast, it looks like there is a large storm forecast for early next week. I hope it does happen, as it will make half term eminently more enjoyable!
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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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Just a quick report have spent a very pleasant couple of days this week in Claviere and Montgenevre.
Tuesday went over to Claviere from Serre Che and just bought the Claviere pass at €28, we were still skiing untracked groomers at Noon.
Met friends for a Cafe stop at Sagna Longa where some friends have bought an old 8 bedroom Pensione in a cracking position.
The beauty of Italy was that it was so empty.
Then lunch on the terrace at Cala Cedrone.
Then yesterday repeat, but this time we bought the additional Montgenevre pass and that was €43 in total.
Have to say Montgenevre offers so much terrain, though was far more busier than little old Claviere it was not too bad and you can still ski all the way down on the South side.
So if heading out next week, enjoy.
Plus there's 20cm forecast on the way for Monday
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The white stuff appears to be falling in Montgenevre right now. How much, I don’t know. A little more tomorrow due tooz
Hopefully it will be enough to make the conditions just right for next week.
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You know it makes sense.
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Sauze and Prali Facebook pages show heavy snow and the (rather poor) webcams at Sestriere also show a nice covering everywhere. Actual snow line is down to 600m altitude according to local weather forecasts so even the lowest runs (1500m) will be getting a good dose. However, I did see a day with high temperatures forecast in the next week.
As others have noted, this area gets some massive dumps when Med lows spin into the underside of the alps, full of moist air. But then it is settled (often sunny) for weeks. The snow today is just a little front, not the classic dump. My amateur observation is that the Fohn winds don’t seem to damage the snow here in the same way they do to the north side of the alps so the pistes survive well during the dry times and they are all fairly high.
We’ve skied in the area 6 times over 5-6 years ranging from Christmas to Easter and always had decent pistes and sometimes had decent off piste. My feeling is we have also had more sunny days per week than most other places we’ve skied.
Before we first skied the area I was cautious because I’d heard from old guide books about ‘erratic’ snow, which I thought would mean bare slopes, slush, ice etc. Some more meteorologically-minded guides like Wepowder’s book paint a much fairer picture as far as I can see. The reality is we’ve had almost no ice, slush or bare patches even skiing at late Easter in warm temperatures. And if you are fortunate to be able to travel when it suits you, there can be epic powder days.
What is weird is how the weather boundary is so distinct between the Italian and French parts of the Milky Way. Montgenevre gets more regular snow, if correspondingly fewer sunny days. It would be really unlucky for both French and Italian sectors to have bad conditions simultaneously, so I personally think it’s a pretty safe choice.
The above is a very long-winded way of saying don’t worry too much - it’s actually a pretty safe bet!
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