 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously I haven't been up the mountain (lifts are closed at the moment, with re-opening on 18th June), but on my return I can see that there is still a reasonable amount of snow at arount 2,800m on the top of the Super Diable. There's quite a lot of snow still showing on the North face of La Muzelle as well, and the night-time temperatures are down to almost freezing in the resort. All this bodes well for the start of the summer seasonl. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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easiski, glad to hear it!!!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Maybe we should start calling you Teasiski 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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easiski, I feel the snow calling. 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Mark Hunter, Nothing to stop you coming out for a long weekend or even a week is there?
We had a good deal of rain/snow on tuesday, which should have topped it up nicely. today has been quite warm though, but it's been cloudy high up. The Dal (lift company won't tell me what it's like, so I'll go up on Saturday to see, and then I'll post again. 
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brian
brian
Guest
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easiski, sounds good, see you in a fortnight
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Well, the big day arrived and I staggered up the mountain (a bit late admittedly). Although there is clearly not much depth of snow the condition was very good. Roche Mantel and Signal (blue) were fine, a little soft, but not difficult. The top of Signal (red) from the arrival of Signal chairlift to the bottom of Roche Mantel chairlift was awful. Very soft and heavy and with rocks starting to peep through.
I then went up the Puy Salié and down the Dome (red) which was fantastic - some of the best snow I've skied for ages, back up the Roche Mantel chair and up Puy Salié again and down on the Puy Salié Sud (blue), which was also good. Considering it's very hot today (and was yesterday) the snow conditions were excellent. All the glacier lifts were running, including the Jandri IV chairlift with the exception of the beginners tow.
The snowpark looks good with both half pipes looking scary, and more big air than previously.
The lift company have made a huge effort this year, they've moved the Dome Sud T bar about 150m towards the snowpark, which allows the piste to be much wider than previously. They've also moved the top pylon of the beginners tow, which will make things much easier and will allow a much better progression for novices. A regular piste has also been roped off next to the T bar furthest left which allows ordinary skiers to ski that lift without getting in the way of the racing lanes.
All in all a truly magnificent hour's ski-ing and looking good as long as it stays reasonably cool.
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Up again yesterday, snow still good but it's been very hot. Pam W and Mr Pam W arrived this evening for a couple of days - should be fun.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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easiski, sorry we didn't make it over.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Latest news (today) is that with the heavy rain in the last couple of days we've lost a fair bit of snow. However all runs are still open and quite skiable. It didn't freeze last night (18deg on my balcony at 07.00 this morning). Hopefully this will be an oddity and we'll get back to a decent nightly re-freeze. Snow quality remains good, even today, and the resort is filling up.
The mountain bike bunch happily disappeared last night, so it's a bit more sensible in the street.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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We had some pretty wintry weather today, which is excellent and there was a little new snow on the glacier. Hopefully it'll snow tonight as well since we lost a lot between last Thursday and last Monday with the rain. they were beginning to close a couple of runs because of crevasses (Signal & Dome), but these runs are likely to be open again for a least a little while longer. It's been much colder during the last 36 hours, so hopefully it'll stay for a while. At 22.00 tonight it's not only 11deg, whereas until 2 days ago it would be around 25deg!!!
All-in-all, still skiable and pleasant.
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You know it makes sense.
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easiski,
Sorry - we were going to drop in on our way through on the motos but time was against us, I'm afraid. We actually camped near Briancon on Weds, 22nd and enjoyed some thunder and lightening (got the tents up just in time ) but missed your thunderstorm on the Thursday as we headed off to Beziers. Will have to drop in another time.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Caspar, Never mind - next time. I'm glad you got your tents up in time - our thunderstorms can be truly spectacular!
It was cold today and the snow remained pretty frozen until the lifts closed at 13.00. This is hopeful, and the forecast says it'll be fresher tomorrow as well. All we need now is another half meter of snow and ..................
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We've had a little bit of snow every evening/night for the last 3 or 4 and it's helped a lot. The whole glacier looks much whiter now, snow conditions were good today with about 5-10 cms of fresh over the base. I gather it's expected to continue like this for some time, but will keep you posted.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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easiski, nice!!!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I was up on Sunday and the snow was nice and hard for most of the morning, certainly we've lost a little since the last snow, but then yesterday it precipitated violently all day and most of the night. I haven't been up today, but the webcam clearly shows a fresh fall. Roche Mantel has now closed, and it was quite tricky to ski on Sat, but I think it's more to allow them to harvest the snow left there rather than by necessity. Due to the general lack of snow in winter the "stashes" of snow that they harvest in summer aren't there this year. No cause for alarm, but I think they're dotting their i's and crossing their t's.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Well, a week later and I'm afraid it's not too good. I was up on Friday and it was OK but not as good as Weds. Unfortunately we've had 3 nights in a row without re-freeze and very warm weather (lovely in town), and the beginner's area is all black and the little rope tow is just dreadful - still operating but even on skis it's impossible. I did about 4 runs on it with a beginner lad and then had to take him down the main run and teach him "on the run". I've brought my Fischers down and will take the old Volkls up next time.
It's really quite depressing, but we could still have more snow, and with a bit of luck it may get a bit cooler at night again. All is not lost yet - but it doesn't look attractive. Still skiable though and dodging crevasses is good fun - teaches you to look where you're going!!! 
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easiski, how lucky are you
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I've been up today, and while it's still open and skiable (had a quick slide at about 12.15) it looks absolutely dreadful!  You can hardly see any snow from the restaurant at 3,200, and while there is still some higher up, it's very heavy and slushy. I find it slightly annoying to see all the huge amount of snow in the snopark (big airs, 2 half pipes etc), and it's not being used to cover the glacier. OK the snopark is the most used part of the glacier in summer - but still ......
Rumours are flying that we'll be closing, but I asked a pisteur who said he didn't think so, and expected the weather to change around 15th August and get cold and snowy! I have no idea how much he knows about long range weather forecasts, but I would expect him to be right about staying open.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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ise, I thought that Stubai was usually open now. You're not planning a visit anytime soon then
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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not after I looked at the webcam I'm not
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ise, Is the state of Stubai a general result of the warm/drought conditions, or are there particular problems with this glacier ski area? How about Hintertux for example, normally (my memory) open for teams to train anytime from now?
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You know it makes sense.
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easiski, Is it normally this bad this time of year ??
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Chris Brookes, No, but since 2003 we've never really got back to the situation we used to have. It was loads better last year.
snowbunny, I've never seen Stubai like that (but it looks a lot like here) - presumably it's the same as us. Not enough snow in winter to melt away this summer and still suffereing from 2003. I've skied the bit at the top right of ise, picture in early August one year. Also, once I skied knee deep fresh snow (won't say powder) on Stubaiergletscher on 12 August! Stubai is open according to what it says at the bottom of the picture.
The thing is that after the very hot summer in 2003, none of the alps have really recovered their "base" snow depths. We lost every flake of snow that summer and most of the snow bridges as well. OK 2003/4 winter was quite good for snow, but you can't make back decades worth in one winter. We normally have about 4m at 3,200 at the end of winter. This year we had about 1.75m - that's a huge difference. Also, here, they push all the snow not required for ski-ing into huge piles and use it for stock. Of course this year the stockpiles were nothing like as big as normal and so we've run out. They closed the Roche Mantel a few days before they really needed to in order to conserve what was left on it as stock, but that's run out now as well.
The message is not that summer ski-ing is dead, but that June and early-mid July are the times to come. August is likely to be pretty dodgy until we have 3 or 4 heavy snow winters in a row (unless it's very cool of course). If you look at Brian's pix from here you'll see a huge difference, and that was only 2 weeks ago.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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easiski, It looks just plain awful. I hope you have some dedicated rockhoppers that perform in what looks like sludge
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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snowbunny, I couldn't disagree really, but the ice is preferable to the heavy snow. Of course if you go up at 07.15 you still get pretty hard snow first thing even if it hasn't re-frozen properly. However if you ski late as I did today it's not the best fun in the world, but very good training for variable and heavy off piste!! every cloud and all that!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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That's a nice set of webcams that L2A has on its website. A good service, even if the glacier doesn't look too appetising at the moment.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I thought so! Considering it was like you might imagine skiing off the Greenland ice sheet into the Arctic Ocean would be like.
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How much? Glad you can take your clients up though!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Having read PG's report on Tignes I think we've had a bit (but not much) more luck. Tuesday was open but high winds, snowing and cold. Wednesday ditto but not snowing so much and today when I finally got up there.... well..... windy and chilly, but not terrible, but I was expecting nearly winter snow, and I got it - but it was ICE!!!!! Not the nice grainy summer ice, but real sheets of shiny winter ice. All good practice of course, and my small (just 6) pupil doing her first run down the glacier (holding onto my sticks) thought the slidy, shiny bits were brilliant fun!!! Is she a WC racer in the making? I was struggling to hold her!! 
Anyway, much whiter, obviously excellent in the long run, but a bit more snow please and some slightly warmer temps! 
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FAQ
The snow however, was OK for the time of day (12.30), and with a bit of luck the temperature is set to drop again tomorrow, and we might even get a bit of a covering later today. Fingers crossed
