Snow for the Euros.

[bad_roo]

This weekend I'll be packing Mrs Roo off to Chamonix and doing something that doesn't involve spending any money.

[H-man]

This weekend Mrs Roo will be packing me off to Chamonix and she'll be doing something that involves spending lots of money.

Fixed it for you....

[Lostinthetrees]

PDS CH-side. Weds.

Down Low - 40+cms and deeper around trees. Fluff on top...but "wet plaster" below.
Up High (2200m and above) - ~ 30cms of feathery fluff.

8:30AM - All lifts pointed upstairs closed. Mines blowing off all AM. Low vis and mist/snow
Top 15 cms was feathery, but fresh layers below are damp. I would rise for a turn and then descend thru the 15cms and get jerked by the "wet plaster". One of the few times in my life I wish I had 100mms under foot.
(I ski 74's and always get more chest shots...except TeleAl ;-)

1PM - Everything upstairs opened. Good vis. I had a 1.5 hr feeding freezy. I was exhausted and smiling so I quit at 2:30.

Plenty of great lines left to ski, but unsure what the result of tonight's temps will do to what has been put down.

My reco: Get high (-er than 2200m)

[subtle plague]

IT'S FUCKIN ON !!!!
ok i got my "car" convinced to go. and im off to the kripp this evening.
40cm at 900m.(avalanche guys measuring station)
50cm on top (the ski area says..) combined with the 15cm yesterday this is enough for me. sun tomorrrow. more snow on sat.
soooo franz, im there ...... and you ?

[Franz Klammer]

Subtle, I am going with St. Anton on Saturday. Sunday maybe the Kripp. I'll watch out for the lunatic with the Big Daddies.

[AH]

This is just down the road from Cham. Looks pretty bony.

Hell Yeah, good thing I'm driving down there tonight!

GET SUM Eurotrash!

[bbirtle]

Spent the morning at La Flegere. 20-50cm of fresh on top of a new more consolidated layer that covers all the old moguls. Which is to say ROCK AND ROLL!!

The warm temps have really started to wreck havoc however. Powder getting a lot wetter towards the afternoon and every face seems to have avalanched... although in truth they are mostly small-scale and not very deep, so burial chances seem slim, it does seem extremely dangerous out there. High temps in the forecast for tomorrow, so enjoy it while it lasts it may be gone by the weekend (although temps dropping starting Saturday).

[greg]

The Vallee Blanche EXACTLY what Chamonix is about to me. Not the pussy roundabout tourist route that grandma could do - it's an incredible world back there like very little found elsewhere. You really aren't skiing in the spirit of Chamonix unless you have a harness on and scary spiky things dangling of it and your rucksack. Les Poubelles ends up at the Mer de Glace. Cosmiques starts at the Midi. The Col du Plan is a great non-extreme but fun blast. Hucking off seracs makes for incredible photos anyway. It just goes on and on back there... it's pretty safe to say I would not have come back here for season #2 if it weren't for the Midi lift.

I guess what I really love about Chamonix is how close the mountaineering and the skiing blend together... two passions rolled in one.

uups soory, I kind of missed your reply.

I don't know what you are referring to as Vallée Blanche. neither poubelle, nor cosmique, rond, grand envers, nor whatsoever is called Vallée Blanche. Vallée Blanche is an annoyingly crowed 11 km touristic hike with fantastic scenery.

I do enjoy runs like the Vallee Blanche but it doesn't really translate to better SKIING per se... it's just longer and look at the amount of lifts you have to chain together to do it.

as far as I remember you have to take one lift to ski the 800 vertical meters of 40-45° couloir of cosmique. maybe it's just your personal definition of skiing per se that doesn't correlate with mine, but to me that is the ultimate definition of "skiing per se."

[subtle plague]

oh well.... im not going it seems.
"i got so many things to do"

well i should have known. to good to be true.

[bbirtle]

I don't know what you are referring to as Vallée Blanche. neither poubelle, nor cosmique, rond, grand envers, nor whatsoever is called Vallée Blanche. Vallée Blanche is an annoyingly crowed 11 km touristic hike with fantastic scenery.

The term "Vallee Blanche" is pretty ill-defined... when people that live in Chamonix talk about doing the Vallee Blanche they usually mean any of the routes that start from the Midi and end up on the Mer de Glace, so including the Envers de Plan. Guides "doing the vallee blanche" will often see how their clients are doing on the first steep slope and then decide how exciting of a route they want to take them on, given the Vallee Blanche Voie Normal is so boring. The words "Vallee Blanche" are on my map in between the Requin Hut and the Rongon.

My point is that a lot of the real gems in Chamonix - purely opinion here, and will differ depending on what you're after - kick off by a trip up the Midi, dump you at the end at Montenvers, or both. When I take the Midi, I feel like I'm somewhere incredible. When I have a pow day at La Flegere, I get better turns but feel like I could be anywhere in the world. (Similar feeling if you do the hikes from the top of the Grands Montets, like Trois Cols and so forth... )

[KANUTTEN]

Snow-forecast has some new setup, so I am unable to get their forecasts now.

Are there any new storms approaching in the near future?

[edg]

but I see what you mean about Gressoney. Nuttn.

Let's all play 'Guess where edg is going in 3 weeks!'

Don't fucking believe it - two years in a row. Gonna take the mountaineering gear if conditions don't improve.

edg

[Hicks]

That's because you jinxed it a while ago without getting your balls bashed all up...

[subtle plague]

great i just found out im not likely to go skiing anytime soon because my ex employer managed to find out they had given me to much money when i began in 2002....and kept 75% of my january income.(and the bad thing is they are right... )
great... not that i didn't have any other problems......(university, findig a new job)

[Ripzalot]

great i just found out im not likely to go skiing anytime soon because my ex employer managed to find out they had given me to much money when i began in 2002....and kept 75% of my january income.(and the bad thing is they are right... )
great... not that i didn't have any other problems......(university, findig a new job)

that sucks! i was hoping you'd guide us in engelberg this season.

[KANUTTEN]

great i just found out im not likely to go skiing anytime soon because my ex employer managed to find out they had given me to much money when i began in 2002....and kept 75% of my january income.(and the bad thing is they are right... )
great... not that i didn't have any other problems......(university, findig a new job)

You should check whether they can do that. If they paid too much, they made a mistake. If the amount was "small enough", you received the money in good faith. Don't know about french/german laws, but in Norway they would act against the law if they did what you say they did.

[Arno]

snow-forecast is predicting heavy snow in alpe d'huez on thursday night and the predictions seem to be trending towards heavier snow as time goes on.

shame I'm arriving there on thursday night

let's hope it's not a case of snow-forecast insane optimism

[KANUTTEN]

Can somebody who has access to the 6 day forecast please inform about predicted snow accumulation in Alpe d'huez and chamo on thu, fri and sat, please?

[ulty_guy]

yeah, looks like something big is hitting down in the southwest alps starting friday and going through the weekend. [/anti jinx]

[bbirtle]

I agree with Lostinthetrees about waiting until the 3 day comes out before getting too excited, but god knows we need some snow so I sure hope it's right!!

[edg]

Wow. Snow. In... Gressoney? Can't be right.

(Last night they were forecasting 40cm on Fri : I knew then that this would end up a 3cm storm)

edg

[verbier61]

I am crossing fingers for gressoney, but when it's from south (and this is the case), there is no hope at all for valais (saas-fee and zermatt included)

[bbirtle]

Hey sure hope it snows. Soon, maybe...

1/25 - Did the Vallee Blanche "Vrai Vallee" route - first Midi run of the season. Some small pockets of nearly-powder, mostly in various degrees of wind affected. All four variations I saw seemed skiiable and with lots of tracks laid in and crowds starting to develop on the tourist route. Arete still not equipped, so crampons still are necessary, although it seems they are in the process of putting up the ropes so that may change in the next few days.

[TeleAl]

Thursday 26 January 2006 08h30
Leysin, Suisse

Jeka woke me up this morning.
Who's Jeka? He's the guy that drives the snowplow.

And it's still snowing.

[verbier61]

snow in milan this morning but not yet in the monterosa area. They desperately need it.