Worldwide Mountain & Snow Sports Discussion 2017/18

[Blessed Weather]

1 hour ago, J10 said:

First ski blog of the winter is now online.

https://www.netweather.tv/weather-forecasts/news/8627-a-snowy-start-to-the-alps-skiing-season-but-will-it-last-that-way

Great to have the blog back Julian. As you say, after several very poor 'season starts' over the last few years it's great that this year we have seen plentiful pre-season snowfall and thus start with a good snow base for the Christmas/New Year holiday period. And whilst the UK might see some mild SW'lies in the run-up to Christmas, over the Alps, with the current favourable forecast positioning of the high pressure, I believe resorts should avoid overly mild temps by day and enjoy negative overnight minimums allowing piste teams to maintain good skiing conditions. I wish I was setting off in a week's time!!

P.S. I think the animated chart works very well with just the right timing. But have you posted freezing level figures in the 850 hPa tables, and vice versa, the 850 hPa figures are in the freezing level tables??

Edited December 15, 2017 by Blessed Weather
Comment about animation added.

[J10]

54 minutes ago, Blessed Weather said:

Great to have the blog back Julian. As you say, after several very poor 'season starts' over the last few years it's great that this year we have seen plentiful pre-season snowfall and thus start with a good snow base for the Christmas/New Year holiday period. And whilst the UK might see some mild SW'lies in the run-up to Christmas, over the Alps, with the current favourable forecast positioning of the high pressure, I believe resorts should avoid overly mild temps by day and enjoy negative overnight minimums allowing piste teams to maintain good skiing conditions. I wish I was setting off in a week's time!!

P.S. I think the animated chart works very well with just the right timing. But have you posted freezing level figures in the 850 hPa tables, and vice versa, the 850 hPa figures are in the freezing level tables??

Cheers for that, I went for animation as IMO it paints a picture far better than more charts can. Thanks for pointing it out to me in the first place.

about the mixup though.

Also the split should be

Northern Alps Northern Austria, Northern Switzerland and Germany
Southern Alps Southern Austria, Southern Switzerland, Italy and France

It is published now, So I'll correct that for next week

Edited December 15, 2017 by J10

[carinthian]

Lovely start to Saturday morning in Katschberg. Leisurely skiing, mountain hut lunch and watching passing snow showers.. Perfect !

C

 

[carinthian]

Start to a super Sunday on the slopes. Expecting quite a few visitors today to enjoy the wonderful start to the season.

 C

[J10]

Saw this on the BBC website

Looks stunning, has anyone been to that specific resort (Stoos).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42384814

[carinthian]

Monday morning view.

 C

[carinthian]

Some more pictures from Katschberg this morning First one is heading in to the Gontal Valley. Second is the Silver Jet 2 ski lift that links the Lungau Resorts to Katschberg.

C

[Optimistic]

On 15/12/2017 at 20:19, J10 said:

First ski blog of the winter is now online.

https://www.netweather.tv/weather-forecasts/news/8627-a-snowy-start-to-the-alps-skiing-season-but-will-it-last-that-way

Thanks for the blog and the valuable information. I'm planning to stay near Chamonix in France from 25 December until the new year. Was reading in other places that it might turn mild during this period so would really appreciate your thoughts about the latest for Chamonix.

Thanks!

[carinthian]

5 hours ago, Optimistic said:

Thanks for the blog and the valuable information. I'm planning to stay near Chamonix in France from 25 December until the new year. Was reading in other places that it might turn mild during this period so would really appreciate your thoughts about the latest for Chamonix.

Thanks!

Hello there. If you PM    J10 , the site ski resort forecaster, I am sure he will give you an update . His latest ski blog is just a few messages up from here. Chamonix, never been to but its in the big ski league! You been there before ? Anyway, have a good holiday. I am sure the snow will be much better than this time last year 1

 C

[carinthian]

Great day in Katchberg today.

 C

[J10]

A quick update, the Christmas blog will be issued over the weekend.

Over the next week, the synoptics are per GFS are shown below.

http://www.snow-forecast.com/whiteroom/snow-forecast-data-shows-best-start-season-alps-21-years/

http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Chamonix/6day/mid

With High pressure in control, looking mostly dry over the Alps for the next 5 days or, but rather mild (freezing Level 3000m at times) with plenty of sunshine. However with the current excellent snow coverage, great skiing conditions, although it may get slushy on lower slopes into the afternoon. (Quite good reliability on above forecast)

The current indication is for the NW winds suggested above to bring colder more unsettled weather from around Boxing Day with the chance of heavy precipitation amounts for those next couple of days, with this increasingly falling as snow as the freezing level drops.

Towards the new year, signs of things turning a little milder again. (A lot of uncertainty on this - the forecast for this coming weekend was for things over the Alps to turn colder which now looks wrong).

Over the next few days, the details on the forecast period Christmas - New Year should become clearer.

 

Edited December 20, 2017 by J10

[Blessed Weather]

7 hours ago, Optimistic said:

Thanks for the blog and the valuable information. I'm planning to stay near Chamonix in France from 25 December until the new year. Was reading in other places that it might turn mild during this period so would really appreciate your thoughts about the latest for Chamonix.

Thanks!

Hi. All looking good for Chamonix from what I can see.

The official depths are 60cms lower slopes and 120cms upper slopes. http://www.ledauphine.com/meteo/meteo-neige

And the forecast from Meteo-France for 1,050m suggests a lovely week's skiing. Above freezing by day, but below at night so the pistes can be put back into good shape!! (Pic below shows each day to 2nd Jan with an hourly breakdown for today. To see the daily breakdown for each day go to the website and click on the day.) Have a great holiday and try and post some pics! http://www.meteofrance.com/previsions-meteo-montagne/chamonix-mont-blanc/74400

 

[Optimistic]

15 hours ago, carinthian said:

Hello there. If you PM    J10 , the site ski resort forecaster, I am sure he will give you an update . His latest ski blog is just a few messages up from here. Chamonix, never been to but its in the big ski league! You been there before ? Anyway, have a good holiday. I am sure the snow will be much better than this time last year 1

 C

I visited Chamonix 9 years ago . Thanks for the information. 

[Optimistic]

14 hours ago, Blessed Weather said:

Hi. All looking good for Chamonix from what I can see.

The official depths are 60cms lower slopes and 120cms upper slopes. http://www.ledauphine.com/meteo/meteo-neige

And the forecast from Meteo-France for 1,050m suggests a lovely week's skiing. Above freezing by day, but below at night so the pistes can be put back into good shape!! (Pic below shows each day to 2nd Jan with an hourly breakdown for today. To see the daily breakdown for each day go to the website and click on the day.) Have a great holiday and try and post some pics! http://www.meteofrance.com/previsions-meteo-montagne/chamonix-mont-blanc/74400

 

That sounds great. Thanks a lot 

[Blessed Weather]

Just before the all-important Christmas/New Year holiday period it's wonderful to be reading reports like this from snow-forecast.com. And interesting that the correspondent correlates snowy seasons in the Alps with La Niña years. Extracts:

Snow-Forecast Data Shows This is The Best Start to the Season in The Alps for 21 Years

Research in to early season snow stats has revealed that this is the snowiest start to the season for 21 winters

“Although 1998, 2011, 2012 and 2008 were just as snowy in some Alpine resorts, we have to go all the way back to 1996 to find a ski season that was notably better in terms of early season snow depths across the whole of the Alps,” says Snow-Forecast’s Robert Davies.......

Why so good this year?

Davies says that first, we avoided a weather event is usually the cause of our worst ski seasons: when the Azores high takes up residence over Western Europe in Autumn and then stays there into January. Second, really snowy ski seasons, including this one, tend to be La Niña years. Although La Niña describes a low-temperature anomaly in the Pacific Ocean, it affects the whole globe: for example, by causing slightly cooler than usual global temperatures.

Full article with some lovely pics: http://www.snow-forecast.com/whiteroom/snow-forecast-data-shows-best-start-season-alps-21-years/

P.S. To everyone heading for the Alps this weekend - have a great holiday!!!

[matty40s]

Not just the big boys either.....

first proper day of the season in the Lake District.

 

[Duane S.]

I'm currently in Les Gets in the Portes Du Soleil and I have to say, considering the time of year, we've had the most brilliant week (of two, one still to go) of skiing here. I've never seen snow depth and quality like it here for so early on. Quiet slopes and luckily, due the excellent conditions, they opened most runs a week early.

Unfortunately though we are set for a bit of a melt (I can hear the constant drip drip drip as I type, yuk!) as the FL rises and gets to a rather uncomfortable >3KM height over the weekend but the snow shouldn't suffer too too much and by late Monday snow (and, it currently looks like, lots of it) will be back on the cards for next week with the models showing FL dropping down sufficiently. Stil a bit marginal at times but this has been improving day to day.

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by s4lancia

[Paul]

17 hours ago, s4lancia said:

I'm currently in Les Gets in the Portes Du Soleil and I have to say, considering the time of year, we've had the most brilliant week (of two, one still to go) of skiing here. I've never seen snow depth and quality like it here for so early on. Quiet slopes and luckily, due the excellent conditions, they opened most runs a week early.

Unfortunately though we are set for a bit of a melt (I can hear the constant drip drip drip as I type, yuk!) as the FL rises and gets to a rather uncomfortable >3KM height over the weekend but the snow shouldn't suffer too too much and by late Monday snow (and, it currently looks like, lots of it) will be back on the cards for next week with the models showing FL dropping down sufficiently. Stil a bit marginal at times but this has been improving day to day.

 

Going to get a lot busier from today I imagine!

Not sure if you know the area well or not, but in case you don't know it, I'd recommend heading across the road to Mont Chery to escape the worst of the crowds. There'll be a queue to get on the gondola and probably at the top to get higher but you can go over the back of the mountain where there are some nice runs, and generally not as many people. 

Another option, if you have a whole area pass is to go down to the Grande Terche, area in St Jean (about 15 mins drive from Les Gets) where the slopes can also be a lot quieter. 

[J10]

Just a quick update the Christmas blog forecast will be uploaded tomorrow.

[Duane S.]

8 hours ago, Paul said:

Going to get a lot busier from today I imagine!

Not sure if you know the area well or not, but in case you don't know it, I'd recommend heading across the road to Mont Chery to escape the worst of the crowds. There'll be a queue to get on the gondola and probably at the top to get higher but you can go over the back of the mountain where there are some nice runs, and generally not as many people. 

Another option, if you have a whole area pass is to go down to the Grande Terche, area in St Jean (about 15 mins drive from Les Gets) where the slopes can also be a lot quieter. 

Cheers for the info Paul.

Yep, expecting the slopes to be choc o block from tomorrow after today's arrivals. I've only just come over from boarding (getting on a bit and it was hurting too much on the falls) to skiing, so I'm still not overly confident on reds and looking at Mont Cherry, it does seem a lot more red'y than blue'y from our living room window...!

 I did go up there years ago and the views were incredible, with Mont Blanc in the background.

Never tried Grand Terche though, may give that a try next week if the crowds get too much!

Edited December 23, 2017 by s4lancia

[J10]

Latest Ski Blog now online here

https://www.netweather.tv/weather-forecasts/news/8641-looking-very-snowy-for-midweek-in-the-alps

A lot of snow seems likely over the Alps Wednesday into Thursday.

[J10]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42474834

[Blessed Weather]

Met Office animation of snowfall in the Alps and Pyrenees this week (Tues through to coming Saturday):

 

[J10]

Will be nice to see some snow over forthcoming days.

Edited December 26, 2017 by J10

[Duane S.]

Quite remarkable we didn't get a flake of snow from this newly formed depression when you know the location of Les Gets on the map...

PPN static just KM away all around. I think I brought the Dorset snow shield with me here!

 Had some great dumpings and great skiing this week though, so can't complain.