Where's my snow!!

robinph

sharingan wrote:

I am just shaking my head at the whole Meribel valley thing. Whats Brides les Bains like? After Sauze D'oulx I never wanted to be away from the main resort like that anymore, but the last minute deals are shocking.

I don't think that you can ski into Brides les Bains anyway as that is a long way further down the valley and has a gondola to get you up as far as Meribel, takes half an hour at least I think. There was zero snow down in Brides les Bains anyway though.

Meribel had enough snow on the runs into the resort but I only discovered that as I took a wrong turn on one of the runs when I was aiming for Mottaret where we were staying which is about another 400m higher again and was fine for the snow. The bigger trouble on the runs down in to Mottaret was more that after going around higher and having the whole piste to yourself is it then seemed awfully crowded at the bottom and more churned up as they never bothered grooming some of the pistes every day due to too many runs to cover. They apparently had a map in the ski school each morning showing the instructors which runs they had done the previous night though so if you were able to get a sneak at that you would be sorted.

mollser

sharingan wrote:

Looking into places for next year though, and I was thinking of France again. Has anyone been to Meribel/Trois Vallees? Whats the session like there, and how suitable is it for mixed groups & ski schools?

We're going back to Meribel this year in late february for the second time (most on the group for their third time). I can tell you that the Apres in Rond Pont is fantastic, live rock bands from 5-7 everynight followed by a bit of night time skiing down to the village where there's plenty of bars. Dicks Tea Bar stays open till 5 every night I think. These were only are favourites, there's plenty of others around.

Skiing is second to none, its the largest ski area in the world apparantly, takes in Courchavel, Val Thorens and a number of other resorts. Over 600km of pistes.

3 valley's lift pass is pricey at €215, but when you see the facilities you get for it it does actually seem like good value.

Ski schools are pretty decent. IMany are english speaking so theres no problem there.

Meribel caters very well for groups, much of the accomodation is chalet based as opposed to hotels, so its ideal for groups of 10+. Dinner 6 nights of the holiday will be included in your chalet, and generally as much free local wine as you can stomach. This saves a lot of money, and there's nothing like your own chalet to party away in!

Being in France, Meribel is pricey enough, but not a patch on Courchavel. About €6 for a beer, €3 for wine, food is reasonable enough. Courchavel is a different kettle, about €9 for a glass of coke! Great to ski in and ski out of though to have a look at how the most obnoxious of all live!

They are expecting big snowfalls this week. I doesn't seem to have snowed much, but over 80% of the runs are open all the same. Can't wait to go again!

sharingan

mollser wrote:

We're going back to Meribel this year in late february for the second time (most on the group for their third time). I can tell you that the Apres in Rond Pont is fantastic, live rock bands from 5-7 everynight followed by a bit of night time skiing down to the village where there's plenty of bars. Dicks Tea Bar stays open till 5 every night I think. These were only are favourites, there's plenty of others around.

2 hours of drinking followed by night time skiing back home ... this is all going to end in tears .... but its the kind of session our group goes for.

Are those spots in Mottaret or Meribel? Gettign to the spots is not the main concern, but from prior experience its best to have the late bar a simple walk back to your accomodation. Our lads are good drunken navigators, but we pick up more injuries on the trip back from late bars/clubs than we do on the slopes.

mollser wrote:

Skiing is second to none, its the largest ski area in the world apparantly, takes in Courchavel, Val Thorens and a number of other resorts. Over 600km of pistes.

Not quite, that honour goes to the Superski Dolomiti area in Italy at 1200km, but not all of those runs can be reached by skiing/lifts (i.e. not wholly interconnected)

mollser wrote:

3 valley's lift pass is pricey at €215, but when you see the facilities you get for it it does actually seem like good value.

No thats very good value.

mollser wrote:

Ski schools are pretty decent. IMany are english speaking so theres no problem there.

I want to avoid the situation the lads had this year - some 50yo mysogynistic bachelor who spent all his time trying to cop a feel of the girls (that part doesn't bother me) that he wouldn't bother teaching the lads, or even remember their names (that part does).

If you get there on a ski-school lift pass, what % of the mountain do you get to use?

mollser wrote:

Meribel caters very well for groups, much of the accomodation is chalet based as opposed to hotels, so its ideal for groups of 10+.

We are a big group, but are more in favour of self-catering + eating out.

mollser wrote:

Dinner 6 nights of the holiday will be included in your chalet, and generally as much free local wine as you can stomach. This saves a lot of money, and there's nothing like your own chalet to party away in!

The wine can wreck your head though ..... our group likes to drink in a place where theres a chance they can get some chicks (however remote).

mollser wrote:

Being in France, Meribel is pricey enough, but not a patch on Courchavel. About €6 for a beer, €3 for wine, food is reasonable enough. Courchavel is a different kettle, about €9 for a glass of coke! Great to ski in and ski out of though to have a look at how the most obnoxious of all live!

choke! I don't remember Chamonix being that unreasonable! That explains some of the user reviews ... I take the lads to a resort that pricey for booze, and you will find my corpse there when the snow melts ...

mollser wrote:

They are expecting big snowfalls this week. I doesn't seem to have snowed much, but over 80% of the runs are open all the same. Can't wait to go again!

Once you got freezing temps the snow will keep and can be topped up by snow cannons.

Anyway, ta for the advice.

jank

feck sake. Its been snowing (all be it lightly) over the last few days and the reports say that the depth of snow has gotten worse in Alpbach. it was 40 cm upper and 10 cm lower. Now its 35cm upper 3cm lower. WTF

There appears to be a big snowfall on saturday but like a lot of these reports these usually aren't the most accurate

How accurate are these reports.
What are the best ones to use?

sharingan

I don't know where they get their numbers, andI don't even know what they measure. They could be measuring off-piste snow depth (snowfall) or piste depth (cannons & piste scraping). While both numbers are valid to know, they should disclose which they mean, as technically piste depth can be gamed. They also don't necessarily measure them every day or using the same methods. Though I would trust the Austrians to be more accurate, on the whole they put more effort into piste preparation on average.

A better indicator of a resorts condition is the number of lifts open.

robinph

sharingan wrote:

A better indicator of a resorts condition is the number of lifts open.

Yep, I'd go along with the number of lifts that are open. If a lift is open then there is at least one way back down from the top of it and it's probably not a black.

mollser

"What glorious fresh snow! It dumped last night and we now have 35cm of the softest, lightest and loveliest new snow imaginable. The whole valley is white again, the trees are laden with snow, the pistes are perfect and the off-piste is fantastic. It is such a relief having great snow again after the soggy / icy conditions of the past few days. You don’t need me to go on about how good the snow is, instead here are a few pictures of this morning’s ski in the Méribel valley. The forecast is for very cold weather for the next few days so this snow should stay good for a while. Yippee!

Looking back at our archived snow reports I’m reminded that last season started out with pretty thin snow cover until January 17th when the snow started falling in earnest. It then turned into one of the best seasons for many years – let’s hope this season’s poor start will be forgotten and this too will be a great year. "

From merinet.com - if this doesn't get you in the mood... shame i'm still 4.5weeks away!

MadsL

To make fivestarpool happy...

Just got back from Bad Gastein, first week only managed five out of six days due to sod all snow - followed by rain!!! At least four of them were glorious sunshine - and the piste masher did a good job in keeping the pistes open.

Then, OMG! Massive dump of snow over three days. One day was powder up to my boots on the piste, and over my knees off-piste. Actually almost too much snow! I've forgotten how to do powder turns Forecast is for even more snow.

Schlossalm is better than Angertal generally - but all runs now seem to be open...you'll have perfect conditions I'd say. Also dont miss the AlpenTherme at Bad Hofgastein...fantastic multimillion euro pool/gym/sauna complex in true roll in the snow style...

"Ted! That woman was in the nip!"

5starpool

Yayyyy for Madsl.

sharingan

Them Today FM ski fans really lucked out didn't they.

5starpool

I'll let you know next week

jank

Alpbach expecting 5cm tomorrow.
At the start of the week this was about 20cm.

Those damm reports.

Getting kinda worried now. Only a week to go. Anybody know what the outlook is for austria next week?

Imposter

Well it snowed last night and it's been snowing most of this week. Not huge amounts of snow but enough! I'm busy packing the car for Saalbach so i'll report back next week too

Check out wetter.orf.at - then click on the schneelagen button and then find your resort. The numbers are for the amount of snow at the top, the botttom and in the town. It's updated every day.