Snow for the Euros.

**KANUTTEN** · 01-12-2005, 04:11 AM

Anyone knows how conditions are there now? I thought that I would get my best weekend of the season going down to Stanton from Norway, but instead it looks as if I am leaving a perfectly good powder weekend up here for some snowless sunny conditions in the alps. I think I will have to resort to heavy drinking. Rumour has it that there is a constant happy hour at the Crazy Kangoroo...

**ulty_guy** · 01-12-2005, 04:38 AM

just got back from cham. i'll do a TR later, but it's pretty bleak. you can still get some if you really hunt and peck, but even those pickings are getting slim.

**subtle plague** · 01-12-2005, 04:58 AM

Originally Posted by KANUTTEN

Anyone knows how conditions are there now? I thought that I would get my best weekend of the season going down to Stanton from Norway, but instead it looks as if I am leaving a perfectly good powder weekend up here for some snowless sunny conditions in the alps. I think I will have to resort to heavy drinking. Rumour has it that there is a constant happy hour at the Crazy Kangoroo...

well snowfire says:

"St. Anton was crap, possibly among the worst conditions I`ve ever skied. I guess we were a week too late. It was super warm too, the snow was crusty as all hell "

so the last spot with snow is bad too.....

**bad_roo** · 01-12-2005, 06:00 AM

That was why I was so amazed to see Comish's TR with all that pow. Talk about throwing a bullseye blindfolded...

**subtle plague** · 01-12-2005, 06:40 AM

me too.
i thought he had mistaken the continent.

**Ripzalot** · 01-12-2005, 10:47 AM

but where will it fall? whereever it does, i'm there....

**Lostinthetrees** · 01-12-2005, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by Lostinthetrees

It is happening somewhere in Western CH! The Jura.
.....The little ski area (Les Jouvencelles) is 1/2 in CH and 1/2 in FR. All surface lifts. The CH side is remains in the shade almost the entire day. Plenty of big trees alongside the pistes. It had plenty of coverage, no rocks in the red pistes. Hard pack powder conditions. The FR side is burnt up. Too sunny.
litt

After reading V61's round-up of Verb conditions, skinning in Les Mosses this week and seeing the damage, and reading what utli-guy says about Cham, it looks like the Jura (massif de la Dole) for Friday.

Actually, I spent 18.50chf for an adult ticket and 13.50chf for each kid. Great conditions under 1500m!?!?! Un bon rapport entre qualite et prix.

RE: Alpes & global warming
Damn, why the hell did they put all the Alpes ski areas on the sunny sides w/o any tree coverage. Shit, they could learn something looking at US East Coast layouts. How do they think they will be in business in 10 years w/o massive re-design and pumping money into snow-making?

**Lostinthetrees** · 01-12-2005, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by Ripzalot

but where will it fall? whereever it does, i'm there....

And just what do you plan on doing? biking or flying a kite?

sorry, but you're seeing the radar bounce off the incoming clouds. Can't just rely on radar images. Look at a good sat. image. Clouds are widely dispersed and thin. No big moisture "head" (thickness and elevation) in the incoming clouds. Not enough moisture in them and ground temps continue to stay warm. Even sno4kast is only giving it between 5 - 10cm over the 48 hour period.

We may get just as much snowfall in the Jura as the Alpes Vaudoises. I will let you know what I find at la Dole on Friday.

**Ripzalot** · 01-12-2005, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by Lostinthetrees

And just what do you plan on doing? biking or flying a kite?

sorry, but blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah .

thanks, mr negative.

**Lostinthetrees** · 01-12-2005, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by Ripzalot

thanks, mr negative.

its called "realism". i always remain upbeat in the face of it. but, i would REALLY like to proven wrong.

i will light a candle for you this evening.

**verbier61** · 01-12-2005, 01:37 PM

uh...
it's snowing in verb....
yeah it will be 1 or 2 cm

**comish** · 01-12-2005, 07:50 PM

I hope snowfire went over to Zurs or Stuben because since they don't face due south there was probably some ok skiing to be had there. Not great, but certainly better than the main Valluga face in St. Anton which faces due south and was shit by the 2nd day after the storm. One really has to take the aspects into account in the Arlberg. You can find nice fluffy pow hidden in the north facing aspects (which tend to be on the backsides of everthing lift accessed so aren't obvious) and then cross the ridge and find the nastiest crusty mush(which is unfortunately probably what Snowfire found) on the south side where the majority of the lifts are.

It was really fricken warm on Saturday when I left so it wasn't getting any better.

Glad I had picts of the pow otherwise you all would have thought I was full of shit.

Sorry dudes. If it makes you feel any better, I rallied for Mammoth this morning on 3 hours of sleep and some solid jet lag thinking I was going to find deeeep blower pow only to find basically 2" wind buff. In the trees lower down it was good, but certainly not the day I was figuring on. The snowbanks are 2-3 stories tall though! TR to follow this weekend when I get back to LaLa land.

**subtle plague** · 01-13-2005, 01:57 AM

computer models give us more hope concerning the 20th and onward !
im not counting on anything, but they have at least other solutions than permanent sunshine now.(if it comes like the 00z run indicates we would have our own little sierra nevada

, but hey you know this will not happen. but it shows the possibilities)

**ulty_guy** · 01-13-2005, 04:11 AM

so who's going to sack up and start burning some skis?

**edg** · 01-13-2005, 05:17 AM

Melted a lot of Ptex filling holes yesterday... does that count?

edg

**ulty_guy** · 01-13-2005, 05:40 AM

filling holes only leads to more holes. all expectation of good skiing this season must be abandoned....then maybe

**edg** · 01-13-2005, 05:50 AM

Awww, you can't make me all negative, that's just rude!

Have high hopes for Gressoney, whether they will come to fruition is another question...

edg

**verbier61** · 01-13-2005, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by edg

Awww, you can't make me all negative, that's just rude!

Have high hopes for Gressoney, whether they will come to fruition is another question...

edg

uh.... are you going to the redbull? I am considering to make a jump there, but not on the weekend....

**edg** · 01-13-2005, 07:37 AM

No, not the Red Bull - just holiday. I don't think they'd let me in even for the comic value

edg

**verbier61** · 01-13-2005, 07:42 AM

drop me a PM, in any case, when you're there.... I frequently (try to

) go to gressoney during the winter when the snow is OK. BTW, you'll see in another post that the red bull has been postponed

**edg** · 01-13-2005, 07:51 AM

Originally Posted by verbier61

drop me a PM, in any case, when you're there.... I frequently (try to

) go to gressoney during the winter when the snow is OK. BTW, you'll see in another post that the red bull has been postponed

Will do - it looks pretty damned cool. They have eventually built the Alagna connection, right?

edg

**verbier61** · 01-13-2005, 08:03 AM

Yeah it's open. Lots of conflicting opinions on what it's impact will be on the alagna spirit. They'll build also another lift to the glacier in 2-3 more years. I have not seen it yet, so no personal opinion.... feedback from friends has been so far somewhat 50% enthusiastic (finally more options and a quicker way to go up to the salati and gressoney-champoluc turfs) and 50% very sad (col d'olen partially groomed, albeit on a slope different from the classical one). I'll stay tuned for your opinions

**edg** · 01-13-2005, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by verbier61

Yeah it's open. Lots of conflicting opinions on what it's impact will be on the alagna spirit. They'll build also another lift to the glacier in 2-3 more years. I have not seen it yet, so no personal opinion.... feedback from friends has been so far somewhat 50% enthusiastic (finally more options and a quicker way to go up to the salati and gressoney-champoluc turfs) and 50% very sad (col d'olen partially groomed, albeit on a slope different from the classical one). I'll stay tuned for your opinions

Interesting... Rather selfishly, I suppose, I was hoping that it would nr open (Sometimes I like just exploring different lifts, and there's some great looking stuff the Alagna side), but of course the local/regulars opinion seems somewhat split. I suppose as the area gets more touristy it's bound to change, for better and for worse.

edg

**Meathelmet** · 01-13-2005, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by verbier61

Yeah it's open. Lots of conflicting opinions on what it's impact will be on the alagna spirit. They'll build also another lift to the glacier in 2-3 more years. I have not seen it yet, so no personal opinion.... feedback from friends has been so far somewhat 50% enthusiastic (finally more options and a quicker way to go up to the salati and gressoney-champoluc turfs) and 50% very sad (col d'olen partially groomed, albeit on a slope different from the classical one). I'll stay tuned for your opinions

Yep.Two barreled gun the new lift..

To get the money to run the lift, Algana had to comply to cat a slope down from salati to bocchette.
Rather nice if you like slopes, but there are
now 1000x more people dropping in on the alagna side than before.

Lot of those people go up to P.Indren now too,crowding the old cabine and dropping down back to the gressoney side...At the christmastime the were such a characters goofing around...

The new lift is nice, but sadly the consequenses are not, for my opinion at least.