Snow for the Euros.

[keksie]

i think this weather station is not really working - but even if theres half, or hell even one third of the amount of new snow that it shows im happy.. (will see tomorrow i guess).. the weather stations in the next valleys showed only a bit or no new snow...

[comish]

Yeah, the webcams for St. Anton weren't showing much which this morning. Its a little bit farther north and E. of Pitztal so that could account for this...

[klar]

a friend was in hintertux yesterday and said the wind was blowing any snow to hell. today you could see the föhnmauer over the brenner all day. it typically just reaches the end of zillertal/stubai/pitz/kaunertal etc and "flows over" onto the northern side. ie there will have been some snowfall on those glaciers but also very high winds and a high snowline. in ibk we had a sparkling, clear, mid may day.

[greg]

I haven't been checking on the weather lately. does anybody think it makes the slightest sense to go to andermatt or engelberg this weekend?

subtle, what do you think and don't let jealousy lead your argument..

[Ripzalot]

I haven't been checking on the weather lately. does anybody think it makes the slightest sense to go to andermatt or engelberg this weekend?

subtle, what do you think and don't let jealousy lead your argument..

20-30cms has fallen there so far. today/tonight might see another 30-40cms. tough call, it's marginal right now. eberg closed today. andermatt has one open run. the weather should start clearing tomorrow but not sure how early or late. i would presume both would be open tho.

i'd say go, but bring your rock skis just in case.

[davidof]

Here's a video snow report for the Oisans massif

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/commen...ions-dec-2006/

Probably about 10cm of fresh snow in the Ecrins/Oisans, about 20cm moving further north into the prealps. Very warm and windy this morning.

[subtle plague]

greg: ANDERMATT. They got 40cm from the Last wave and maaay get 70cm+ until Saturday. SUNDAY ist the day to ski. Bluebird and cold. (what you can call cold after this fall... )
rigth now they have a massive 80cm Base at 2900m
I would come down if it would snow some more...but the base ist just not there. The dump itself is $$$$

Engelberg is completly unskiable. with 40cm at the Glacier......

[ulty_guy]

woop woop...weather alarm in suisse....

winds of 130 km/hr and a meter of snow for 1200m and above

woop woop!

[edg]

Now that's just silly :

Zermatt
Fri
Morning : 7cm
Afternoon : 20cm
Night : 53cm (!!!!!)

edg

[Hicks]

Now the whole weather patters are giving me some other headaches.

The previous long warm period, followed by major dumps along with strong winds will make up for some real avy hazards thru all of the remaining season with lots of unconsolidated snow to expect as a base.

[davidof]

Now the whole weather patters are giving me some other headaches.

The previous long warm period, followed by major dumps along with strong winds will make up for some real avy hazards thru all of the remaining season with lots of unconsolidated snow to expect as a base.

Hmmm that's not what I'm seeing on the ground.

[Hicks]

Hmmm that's not what I'm seeing on the ground.

Sure not yet but maybe gradually over the next couple of weeks.

[geo039]

Starting to work So what is the call for the weekend? Zermatt, Verbier, Saas Fe,?

"Cerrano wants some extra power for tonight. He's looking to sacrifice a live chicken."

Do you think that the Cerrano style will help bring the snow? I am starting to get into the "whatever it takes" category!

[rungsp]

Well I'm off to Verbier for the weekend...there is some snow, there will be some skiing and it is still only early December.

Did I mention the smile on my face?!

[greg]

ripz, sub thanks for the info. haven't decided yet if i'm going. ishan says maybe skiing down the (closed) black run in engelberg might be possible. i don't remember how it was called.

but what do you think is the base around midstation in andermatt? I mean it's slightly above 2000 isn't it? you think it's gonna be ok?

Now the whole weather patters are giving me some other headaches.

The previous long warm period, followed by major dumps along with strong winds will make up for some real avy hazards thru all of the remaining season with lots of unconsolidated snow to expect as a base.

don't think so. bonded snow (eg windslabs) form a very stable base. they often make up for the most stable parts within the snowpack throughout a season.

the aper areas, eg. shoulders rollovers... that are free of snow now because of the strong winds, could be, depending on weather evolution prone to unconsilidated snow for the whole season. if we get just a few centimeters during the next period of snowfall, followed by another period of cold nights and high radiation, then we all should watch out for rollovers and ridges throughout the whole winter (more then usually)..

[Hicks]

ripz, sub thanks for the info. haven't decided yet if i'm going. ishan says maybe skiing down the (closed) black run might be possible. i don't remember how it was called.

but what do you think is the base around midstation in andermatt? I mean it's slightly above 2000 isn't it? you think it's gonna be ok?



don't think so. bonded snow (eg windslabs) form a very stable base. they often make up for the most stable parts within the snowpack throughout a season.

the aper areas, eg. shoulders rollovers... that are free of snow now because of the strong winds, could be, depending of weather evolution prone to unconsilidated snow for the whole season. if we get just a centimeters in the next period of snowfall, followed by another period of cold nights and high radiation, then we all should watch out for rollovers and ridges throughout the whole winter (more then normally)..

Hope you are right Greg. Did the ground have already negative or still positive temperature figures upon the dumps?

[powders]

Cloudy, warm with some foehn and little rain in Cham now.... meteofrance however forecasting snow from this pm onwards and tomorrow

we'll see.

so far only snow in town this winter was on 21st nov

[Ripzalot]

but what do you think is the base around midstation in andermatt? I mean it's slightly above 2000 isn't it? you think it's gonna be ok?

midstation is about 2200m. the question is how much does it need to form a base?
40cms isn't a whole lot. but if 50 or 70cms more fell on top of it, i would think that should be good to go.

[subtle plague]

20-30cm fresh this afternoon south and southeast of andermatt.(the lukmaier station has 135cm now and had 105 this morning..sadly there is no ski area ) i don't know what they got, but it still seems to rain in the valley.

another 60-100cm until tomorrow afternoon. from zermatt to southeast of andermatt. of course southern alps that is
Andermat itself may get 60-80cm to0 id say depending how much the airflow presses the clouds north..

so go out and get it on sunday. avalanche risk goes down from 4 tomorrow morning to 2-3 on sunday.
sunday will be cold and bluebird.

SOOOO ---> SUNDAY!
and ripz etc: do not head out to grd st. bernhard or something they get the least snow.

[greg]

just called andermatt. they don't know if the cabin to the top will be running on sunday yet. so I'll decide tomorrow.

ishan will be up on titlis tomorrow - as soon as i get some info, i'll post it.

is anybody else thinking about skiing in andermatt or engelberg on sunday?

[davidof]

Hope you are right Greg. Did the ground have already negative or still positive temperature figures upon the dumps?

In the central French Alps I measured -6.5C yesterday at 2500m on the snow surface with a 0 degree ground temperature with a snow depth of over a meter at this point. What we found was a humid base, due to the very warm conditions and foehn with perhaps 20cm of localized soft slabs which were poorly bonded to this base in places. I think if the temperature cools down now this should provide a pretty decent base for the winter. The situation where I am is different from last year where we had poor snow cover but very cold temperatures which lead to the formation of a deep layer of facets.

However I would expect the situation to deteriorate in the short term with the fresh snow and wind transport to north-through-east sectors. Sunday promises to be bright and sunny and quite dangerous in places. I would estimate the avalanche risk as rising from 2 (moderate) through to 3 (considerable) in France (the French avalanche service are still pretty much in hibernation).


Vaujany back bowl yesterday

There were a couple of incidents in Switzerland yesterday. On on the Grand St Bernard, on an east facing slope between 2000-2500 meters, two skiers partially buried. No serious injuries and the other on the col between the Allalinhorn and Alphubel at 3500m, north aspect, two skiers triggered and carried away by a slab.

[Idris]

Snowing heavily in cham. To warm but lots coming down,

[subtle plague]

andermatt is going off.
yesterday green in the valley.
today:



lukmaier station 1m+ in 24h.
30cm yesterday afternoon and 70cm over night.

[wildstyle]

Excellent news. I have a lot more faith in snow-forecast as it was on the money this time.....

[p@wder]

when will we know if verbier will open up terrain? Looks like they got the goods last night, but dont know what terrain they will open up. A few of us from EPFL/Lausanne planning a trip for tomorrow.Preferably somewhere not too far away.