Snow for the Euros.

[ulty_guy]

Cham area is in dire need of some fresh, but it'll be coming in the next week (along w/ the paella express ). Spent most of the last days touring around the Aguille Rouge and hitting some couloirs. North faces still powdery in places, south faces not quite warming up enough for spring snow.

[Roo]

Found some good stuff in the Oisans over New Year.


Mrs Roo at Le Chazelet


Atop Pic Blanc at Alpe d'Huez


Bootpack up to La Pyramide


View down the Grand Sablat, Alpe d'Huez


At the Col de la Pyramide


Near the bottom of the Grand Sablat


Mrs Roo in the Couloir Patou, La Grave

Quick and dirty video:

[Toby]

I did some sidecountry today, first dedicated day without the family. It wasn't my best day. The approach was super shallow, with lots of shale and slate. I was very cautious and didn't do too much damage. On the way I quickly worked out that south faces had a thin breakable sun-crust on top of sugar up to 3000m. I found some N facing shady aspects and dug a pit for fun at ~2500m. ~1m of snow consisted of 25cm of old snow on top of 5cm of sugar on top of a ~3cm hard layer (early Dec rain?) on top of old snow on top of 15-20cm of sugar. The top layer of old snow popped out on isolation several times. Great. So I skied down some sun-baked 45 degree aspects, thinking I'd rather have the sun-crust on sugar go than the soft slab in the shade. I flailed badly, jump turns with random break-throughs, two falls. Not fun. Some shallower slopes were fun down low where I ventured into the shade. A couple of herds of gäms scared by my flailing were the highlights.

And then, I'd misjudged the geography. I thought I could mostly traverse out of the valley I was in. Unfortunately, the traverse ended up being a 90min bootpack up an old frozen skin track (I didn't have my touring setup). I wished I'd at least brought skins but I'd taken them out of my pack in the morning. Depending on the aspect, I'd randomly break through the track down into thigh-deep sugar for several steps. So that was fun. At least when I got to the top I had a nice shaded slope on the way home with safe routes down.

We badly need snow here. There is great terrain, but it's kind of inaccessibly without rock scrambling. There is also great terrain that's too shallow to open it up. I watched two guys take some burly lines, but I could hear them hitting rocks hard occasionally. The other thing to watch out for here is parapenting is huge, and there are also parapente speed riders (?), so there are occasionally tracks that would be tempting to follow but that they disappear over 100'+ cliffs.

[uli]

If you know where you'll find what you want . . .

[ridewinter]

Hey Euro-mags -- over in the States there are weather forecasting sites run by skiers, such as snowforecast.com, coloradopowderforecast.com, and my favorite, powderchasers.com.

Is there anything comparable in the Alps? Either English, Français, or Deutsch would work...

[Toby]

powderguide.com run by some of the guys in this thread. There's also a Belgian or Dutch alternative a few pages back. The German speaking guys all converse on freeskiers.net or here.

[davidof]

For Grenoble you can't beat Meester Calepin:

http://geo.hmg.inpg.fr/mto/mto38.shtml

[davidof]

Quick and dirty video:

mmmm pink skis.

[The AD]

For anyone looking into a Euro ski trip I just saw that Lufthansa has a fare sale going on: http://www.lufthansa.com/online/port...nodeid=3071378

[jumpturn]

For anyone looking into a Euro ski trip I just saw that Lufthansa has a fare sale going on: http://www.lufthansa.com/online/port...nodeid=3071378

Don't forget to check the baggage allowances and charges. These can run to $500 RT depending on how much gear you bring, which is why I am flying Swiss now. Swiss international allows economy class 2 x 23kg plus skis and boots go free.

[jumpturn]

More crusty mank....ok, maybe not such connoisseur crust like the Italian side....
[ame="http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3123924&postcount=9"][/ame]

[Roo]

mmmm pink skis.

I can carry 'em off.

[jumpturn]

Got some snow....waiting for more!
[ame="http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3125409&postcount=10"][/ame]

[rAvski]

Hey Euro-mags -- over in the States there are weather forecasting sites run by skiers, such as snowforecast.com, coloradopowderforecast.com, and my favorite, powderchasers.com.

Is there anything comparable in the Alps? Either English, Français, or Deutsch would work...

www.wepowder.com

[subtle plague]

the pattern is srwed for the next 5-7 days at least. sw to no end.

warm, little precip and windy.

[Toby]

Liquid snowing here at 1600m 30min ago or so. Very, very warm. Disappointing.

[TeleAl]

Please don't use the R word during ski season.

[Toby]

Whoops. Should've known better. But it's still doing it now.

[SimB]

Heard that it was snowing i courmayeur all day today, gonna chech it out tomorrow. Nothing can be worse than R.... to 2400m in Cham.

[jumpturn]

Heard that it was snowing i courmayeur all day today, gonna chech it out tomorrow. Nothing can be worse than R.... to 2400m in Cham.

Look on the bright side: the snow is going to start sticking to the ice! Plus, the snow bridges are going set up....

http://www.regione.vda.it/turismo/pr..._discesa_i.asp

What about verbier?

[SimB]

Thats true...

Verbier looks like it's gonna be partly cloudy/Sunny and like -7 at Mt. Fort. Don't think that there that much snow there thou... Similar to Cham?

[jumpturn]

GM was ok this morning. 5cm over groomers. Top was ok at noon, but warm down low. I did get hit with some grapple up high, so hard to say what happened later on. Could be good or not so....but you can count on a frenzy!

[uli]

May be it's better to stick with some serious site than stoking in the dust:

http://chamonix-meteo.com/bul/metPreMatFr.php

@TeleAl:
Sure, for us in lower situated ressorts/regions the next time will be hard (for you even harder since there the snow coverage is really thin). But if it's not going to rain hardly and a long time it won't be that big of a problem for the basic couche de neige - which is like beton (since the big warm of mid december).

[subtle plague]

ahm... a full week of sw with strong winds can melt all your "serious site" information quite effectively

below 2200-2400m at least.

and since it seems to be anticyclonal sw there will be no new snow up high as well...... the problem with the jet being as it is that there is a tendency to form a high pressure system at the right jet exit. --> bad.

i juts hope the pattern does not prove as persistent as the patterns during the last few months. the models do not see any hope before the 15th and that is mostly so because afther 6-8 days the forecast tends to be chaotic anyway....

well...bouldering is also a worthy pastime.

[SimB]

Just got back from Courmayeur and it was GOOD! (After 8-9 days of chasing windblown). Got like 40cm yesterday and today was great for tree skiing, the snow was kinda heavy at times but still very nice. Close to zero visability out in the open.

Any info from Cham today? Was thinkin' Grand Envers for tomorrow, any fresh up there?