The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2014-2015 season

Oh yeah.
Webcam are looking good again in les gets but forecast on meteo france is for rain tonight and tomorrow .

Yep, still snowing all the way down to my house just above 800m!

Binners posted this on another thread, it made me smile.

On TF1 news Evelyn said it was the mildest Winter since 88, I was laid of just before Christmas in Val that year. No snow, no skiers, no more job.

Junior went out yesterday and came home with water running out of his shoes. Rain right up to the top apparently.

Les Gets are not opening this week end.
Gutted.
How easy is it to get to higher resorts?

It’s a long drive. Valoire, Val and Tignes are your best bet if you want to ski from the resort. The glacier at les Deux Alpes looks OK but lower down it’s no good.

Some wencams to help you choose

Les Gets are not opening this week end.
Gutted.
How easy is it to get to higher resorts?

You could be in Verbier in 2 hours.

I was there at the weekend and conditions were good.

havent got a car .

hopefully there will be shuttles to Avoriaz .

Peter File: just missed you. Was at Verbier Monday and Tuesday. It was surprisingly ok. Still rocks in places though. Was snowing in Chamonix yesterday from mid-morning. Good news but overall temps are way too high for time of year. Any fresh snow fall is thawing. Feel sorry for anyone heading over here to ski at Christmas. Where there is snow will be super busy. Here at 660m near Grenoble it is almost t shirt weather. Conditions look better in Scotland.

Well, today was more like a transition into summer than into winter.

Nearly headed into town for a wetsuit. They are talking about shutting Sestriere if the weather persists much longer.

@mugsy

I had my lunch today, outside on the apartment balcony at 2000m in a t-shirt.

Top car park at Cairngorm full today. People must be desperate.

In les gets, no snow. 1 slope open for beginners but that is it. Al least kids can have their lessons.

2 sweet powder days in the high alpine in Whistler. Makes up for the fact there’s almost no snow in the village.

The woman’s downhill from VdI looked as if it had been snowing

TMH just back from Savoie, Tignes and Val D have enough snow for partial opening having been cold enough to hold the snow that has fallen.

Rumours of Avoriaz not selling lift tickets to anyone who is not staying in the resort, too much pressure on limited number of open pistes. That’s understandable but could get ugly.

Attention au verglas !

Soaked snow freezes to produce conditions that made ski crampons useful up a blue run. A constant helicopter shuttle service between the pistes and the local hospital.

One advantage of the mild conditions is the attire of some ladies. Mini skirt and boots. 😛

Filthy old bugger 🙂

Bike Verbier and Alpine Roots have been out riding trails (Facebook and Instagram posts), it did occur to me my bike would have been useful last week, if you can’t ski the upper slopes why not ride down to the valley !

I enjoyed playing on the MTB (with spikes) on closed green runs a lot more than scraping my way down the open pistes this morning. The piste bashers are doing their best but when the raw material is water ice it only take a few skiers to scrape back to ice.

Merry Christmas everyone 🙂

inukshuk by jkcarson2012[/url], on Flickr

😀

Seasons greeting from the trees in Norway

Not sure if this just more spin but…

@weathertoski 10:18pm – 25 Dec 14:
Still very confident we will see 30-60cm snow (locally more) across W. Alps this wknd – especially French and W. Swiss Alps.

@weathertoski 9:49am – 26 Dec 14:
Batten down the hatches – big storm to hit western Alps tonight! http://tinyurl.com/d9cz7z2 pic.twitter.com/9Tk38k9XyT

Tweets by weathertoski

Days 4-6 Ischgl Weather Summary: A heavy fall of snow, heaviest during Mon afternoon. Extremely cold (max -13°C on Wed night, min -20°C on Tue night). Wind will be generally light.

From snow-forecast.com

Fingers crossed but still 4 weeks to go.

Where abouts in Norway is that?

Saalbach is a very different resort today. The valley is now white. Cannon have been on for 24 hours and quite a few more runs open. Wish we weren’t going home tomorrow!

piemonster – Member
Where abouts in Norway is that?

Hemsedal , 2.5 hours from Oslo. Great Place!

Avoriaz and PdS announcing that with recent and predicted snowfall they will be removing lift pass restrictions (ie resort guests only) and putting prices back up to normal. Good news.

left les Gets at 6pm last night and they were expecting a lot of snow .

and looking by the pictures this morning they were right .

despite the lack of snow it has been a great week .
kids had a perfect week to learn , high temperature and sun shining .
it was a bit boring for me to do the same slopes all week but better than nothing . and after nearly 20 years of not skiing , it all came back really quickly .

really liked Les Gets and hoping to go back in the future .

Currently dumping in Morzine, about 6-8 inches in town so far. The slope at the bottom of the Pleney, which was a green field yesterday, is now looking like it should. Should be a good day tomorrow.

Landed in snowy Munich this morning and skiing in pretty good conditions at Auffach from 1 pm.

Getting cold now and more snow on the way.

Yay!!!!

So the sister in law and family are driving out for a extended family holiday in La Plagne. Their kids first skiing holiday.

They have made it as far as Chambery after sitting in traffic for hours. Roads are now closed – no access to the mountain tonight. Cue us finding them a hotel in Grenoble.

Nightmare. Sympathies to anyone caught up in that.

Like so: http://www.planetski.eu/news/6589

@torso, yes saw that. Hard to imagine 10 days ago it was green fields and +12 on the road below La Plagne.

Anyone stuck near Grenbole welcome to come and stay with us. 6km from Grenoble aiport. About 10km from Exit 9 on the Lyon-Grenoble autoroute. DanjDOTheywood@gmailDOTcom

We had the same thing last year in Val Thorens, massive dump the day we arrived and the roads were all blocked, so transfer took ages and we finally arrived at 4am having set off at 5pm for the 2 hour drive the day before!

Great news for all you alps / Europe bound shredders!

according to the french news there are 15000 cars blocked in Savoie tonight .

what ski daysac’s are recommended – looking at either an osprey Kode or a north face patrol.

I use a DaKine Heli: 11 litres as opposed to the far bigger Heli Pro, space for a hydration bladder, ski loops for carrying (and straps for boards if you’re that way inclined), not to bulky so no issues leaving it on when on chairlifts