Snow for the Euros.

[Rossymcg]

@captain awesome if you like eating good food, drinking good wine and coffee plus seeing some stunning mountains you're probably in the best place in the world for that. However if you like fresh snow the doilies are drier than a nuns crutch. The pistes are in great condition due to great snowmaking facilities. It's a nice place to holiday. Check another forum called snowheads(think epicski) loads of older geek out types who ski the dollies year in year out. They'll have all the Intel

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[Captain Awesome]

https://www.bergfex.com/groeden-wolkenstein/wetter/ .

It's easy to get to Austria from there, provided the roads are decent or you take a train. Either over the Brenner Pass or more scenic Bruneck/Brunico to San Candido and then Spittal an der Drau where you can get to Bad Gastein via a tunnel.

Thanks, I'll keep on eye on that. Funnily enough, this trip started as planned for Bad Gastein (spotted it on a train trip from Zurich to Salzburg a few years back and had been hoping to get there), but was convinced by a Euro-friend that Selva was where we "had" to go.

@captain awesome if you like eating good food, drinking good wine and coffee plus seeing some stunning mountains you're probably in the best place in the world for that. However if you like fresh snow the doilies are drier than a nuns crutch. The pistes are in great condition due to great snowmaking facilities. It's a nice place to holiday. Check another forum called snowheads(think epicski) loads of older geek out types who ski the dollies year in year out. They'll have all the Intel

Cool. This is intended to be more of a food/drink/photos trip, so it sounds like we nailed that, anyway. Sort of a bummer that conditions aren't likely to be better, but Mrs. Awesome is WAYYYY into going to ski in Italy for the first time, so we'll make up the pure skiing component on some other trip. I did get some hits for Snowheads on Google, I'll check them out for food/drink reccs, I guess?

[2Pole]

sweet as...

[cravenmorhead]

Is there a good source for looking at snowpack in Chamonix vs. a longterm average? OpenSnow does it for US resorts but I can't find something similar for Chamonix.

[subtle plague]

Is there a good source for looking at snowpack in Chamonix vs. a longterm average? OpenSnow does it for US resorts but I can't find something similar for Chamonix.

Take slf.ch and klick on the neighbouring Stations.
French measurments have only one station in the aguille rouge and are generally crap.

Highest in 26 years. And pretty stable.

[stupendous man]

Hi folks.

First timer here, looking for advice to chase the snow in the second half of next week. I'm looking to fly in from Spain (where I live) to Geneva, and then from there I'll be rolling solo.

I've been posting in another thread, but I'm having analysis paralysis so maybe you can help:

first, I think train from geneva airport is the best option to save time and money, so that points me toward Chamonix, Verbier, or Crans Montana of the mountains that will get snow next week.

Cham looks to get pounded. Questions are 1- do lifts/areas get shut down for too much snow in Cham? 2- if I am a Colorado powder hound but not into mountaineering should I skip Cham?

Verbier looks like a good amount of snow - is it too high for bad viz if there is a multi day storm

Crans I really know nothing about, just shows a lot of potential snow there.

I was also looking into Les Arcs and Tignes, but transport there is making that seem like a no-go.

Thanks for any direction you can provide.

[Buster Highmen]

Les Arcs is easy: 4.5 hour train to Bourg St. Maurice, then the funicular starts right by the train station to get you up to LA 1600 where there's lifts and busses up to the top.
They're forecast to get 46 cm at LA1600 and 87 cm at LA2000. If the storm is crazy up high, there's tree skiing down low.

Plus after skiing at LA for a day or 2, you can take the 17:00 bus from BSM train station up to EK for 11 Euros.

This is useful for train information, including France: https://www.sbb.ch/en/buying/pages/f...fahrplan.xhtml

[cravenmorhead]

Take slf.ch and klick on the neighbouring Stations.
French measurments have only one station in the aguille rouge and are generally crap.

Highest in 26 years. And pretty stable.

Outstanding, thanks.

[subtle plague]

Crans is generally pretty boring. There are better storm skiing options for the valais. Snow line will be problematic though because it'll rain at least to 1500 or 1800. There would still be options. But not many [emoji6]
Verbier does not make sense before it goes blue it's not really a treesking spot, especiallywith a high snow line. Same for cham.
It's not yet sure when it's going to turn blue, but friday earliest.

[stupendous man]

4.5 vs 3 to verb or cham is the choice then?

[Danno]

Yeah SM, get some!

[stupendous man]

what is this blue of which you speak - upcoming storm looking too warm to pow chase?

[Buster Highmen]

Portes de Soleil, Champery CH, is another option with 28 cm forecast within the next 5 days to Verbiers 10 cm.

[stupendous man]

I am so fish out of water. Every time I hear about another resort it's like, ok google that, get a bunch of tourist websites, check map, check train, ahhh!

[Buster Highmen]

What's the priority?
Ease of access?
Best snow?
Best terrain?
Hookers and blow?

There's also Les Diablerets train, 2.5 hours from GVA with Glacier 3000 forecast to get 40 cm in the next 5 days.

[stupendous man]

priority:
1. pow
2. ease of access- coming from spain makes for a long day and I'm on a short hall pass, solo

for terrain - hoping to hook up with a guide to get off piste as I am a total euro noob

prefer good eats to H/B

[Buster Highmen]

I think Les Arcs has the best forecast with 87 cm at 2000m and 47cm at 1600m forecast in the next 5 days.
Is the extra 1.5 hours on the train worth it?

[Rossymcg]

have a consider of Le Grand Massif area not sure how much to fall there but some good altitude and terrain plus trees. not far from Geneva either

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[Charlie Don't Surf]

Don't know anything about France but western ch is my bag. As per subtle you'll need to follow the snow line as the system rolls in. When it's snowing it becomes tricky to get above 2000m but if the line is high it doesn't leave you with much. Best places for storm skiing are leysin, ovronnaz, champex lac, bruson(part of l4v), and glacier 3000 (only if the black wall is open). Other options open up as the radius expands.

Consider Martigny as a base camp, quick train to verbier and cham as well as a ton of smaller areas.


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[Gorilla]

Key thing here is the cost of the guide. If you are willing to pay for a private guide and rental car (400 EUR or 650 CHF for the guide) then pick a base town either in Western Suisse or France, get a guide recommendation and then go skiing where the guide tells you.

If you aren't up for the cost of that then you are looking at places where the guides office or a ski school puts together groups (walk in price 110-125 EUR per day). La Plagne guides office does this, as does Cham, Meribel does when they have demand and Alpine Experience run daily collective groups in Val. Other places don't automatically do this. I'm not aware of anywhere in Verbier running putting together off piste groups on a per day basis. But I haven't lived in 4v in a decade. Others may have better recommendations.

If it's the latter then I'd be looking strongly at Val d'Isere. Yes the transfer is an arse but it's got tree skiing, guided options and the base village is roughly at the rain/snow limit for next week. So you probably won't get pissed on.

[twat]

Saw the skinner yesterday and had my plan for today.
I looked at this line for years from the distance. Now I can always smile looking at that mountain.

[subtle plague]

what is this blue of which you speak - upcoming storm looking too warm to pow chase?

Bluebird. [emoji3]
Storm will be warm. Unclear how warm. If the snowline stays at 1800m or below then there are some treeskiing options in the area. If it goes 2000m+ then you can look for hookers and blow until it clears.

And Charlie: please PM the names of the areas and take them down. The magic pass causes a lot of traffic anyway [emoji6]

[bobinch]

Hi folks.

First timer here, looking for advice to chase the snow in the second half of next week. I'm looking to fly in from Spain (where I live) to Geneva, and then from there I'll be rolling solo.

I've been posting in another thread, but I'm having analysis paralysis so maybe you can help:

first, I think train from geneva airport is the best option to save time and money, so that points me toward Chamonix, Verbier, or Crans Montana of the mountains that will get snow next week.

Cham looks to get pounded. Questions are 1- do lifts/areas get shut down for too much snow in Cham? 2- if I am a Colorado powder hound but not into mountaineering should I skip Cham?

Verbier looks like a good amount of snow - is it too high for bad viz if there is a multi day storm

Crans I really know nothing about, just shows a lot of potential snow there.

I was also looking into Les Arcs and Tignes, but transport there is making that seem like a no-go.

Thanks for any direction you can provide.

I’m biased but in your shoes I would go to Le Châble giving you easy access to Verbier and Bruson. It’s a very easy 2h30 train journey from Geneva. It will open faster and more than Chamonix and for lift served is much better. In bad weather days you have the new fast, covered chair on the Bruson side and when the sun comes out, feast your eyes on all the freeride terrain in Verbier. There is nowhere else locally that has easy access to the combination of great tree skiing and high altitude freeride terrain.

[ArchieD]

priority:
1. pow
2. ease of access- coming from spain makes for a long day and I'm on a short hall pass, solo

for terrain - hoping to hook up with a guide to get off piste as I am a total euro noob

prefer good eats to H/B

You've got some great suggestions, and the stuff about where you can get a guide is really important if that's what you want to do and budget is limited. FWIW a friend was in Tignes a couple of weeks back and did several days off piste with the ESF and had a blast (wouldn't be my exact choice - there are other schools that do off piste by the day with a lower instructor asshole quotient).

I'd just add that you can consider bus transfer as well as train, especially if you end up aiming near to GVA. Cham express, Mountain Dropoffs and others do a really regular service from the airport direct to your accommodation in the ski town of your choice (if it's one of the handful they cover...). There's also a bus to places like La Plagne, Les Arcs and Tignes...though the longer distance ones like that are way less regular (so train then taxi is also your friend).

[Rossymcg]

I wouldn't go with ESF off piste. You'll be waiting for Fat Barry with the steamed up glasses from Essex who's fell over "AGAIN" and doesn't realise his heal piece is still engaged whilst trying to force his ski boot in the ski buried in 24" of fresh powder.
Alpine experience will have a get after it group going out daily from VDI. As will snoworks from Tignes

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