The Season so far ?

Following on from NM's 'Where is the snow in Scotland ?' post...

Just wondering what are your impressions or experiences of the season in
Europe so far... ?

There are areas in the French Alps which are 1 metre down on real snow at
the moment...eg.3V, this winter it seems there is plenty of cold in the
French Alps at least but not the usual precipitation. In some areas eg.
Haute Marienne the tops are wind scoured so what natural snow there is is
being blown off. Worst start in 16 seasons according to some in that area.

What about other parts of the Alps, Italy, Pyrenees ? Further east sounds a
lot better... Austria, Bulgaria ?

For me, as a piste basher/thrasher huge snow depths don't matter too much,
but at Xmas I did get fed up with artificial ! Personally, I would like to
see a couple of good dumps in the 3 valleys before the French holidays start
in earnest when we head to La Tania again.

All the best,

Edi

Broadly speaking, there has been an east-west split in the Alps so far
this season.

The western half of the mountain range has, as you say, been cold, but
short on snow. I have saisonnaire friends in the 3 Vs and they tell me
they have yet to see a monster storm at all this year. Snow cover has
been low, almost consistently down to the valley floor, but it's been
thin and barely covers the rocks - indeed, some of the Meribel webcams
are still showing grass poking through the snow at altitude.

In contrast, the eastern half of the Alps has been seeing near-record
snowfalls. Most of Austria and Germany was in full flow by end-Nov,
early-Dec, and it has continued to hoof it down ever since. Low-lying
resorts, like Kitzbuehel and St Wolfgang, have seen some of their best
conditions in years.

Interestingly, there have been some megafalls taking place in the
southern Alps just in the last few days. Turin in Italy this week saw
3ft in 24 hours, its biggest dump since 1987, apparently. So, perhaps
the parched western and south-western corners will see some relief in
the next few days / weeks.

Across the Pond, the US also has an east-west split. Eastern stations,
like Killington and Stowe, have been plagued by rain and warm air.
Meanwhile, western resorts, such as Whistler and Park City, are seeing
immense conditions. Mammoth in California experienced 5ft in 1 day,
while Mt Baker in Washington State saw 12ft in a week, forcing it to
close for only the second time in its history.

On the other side of the world, snow has also been belting down. South
Korea has seen heavy snow all season, while some of the islands in the
north of Japan received sustained record snowfalls earlier this month
in the 10 - 20ft range.

Overall, then, it has been a mixed season to-date. Amazing for some,
poor for others.

However, it is worth noting that France has experienced some of its
heaviest storms later in the season, during Mar and Apr, over the last
decade or so. Thus, there is still plenty of time for the slopes to
recover (although there will unlikely be enough to top up many of the
already depleting glaciers in Tignes, Alpe d'Huez, La Plagne etc.).

Its been very good in Austria/Germany so far, however some new snow now
would be great cause its been about 2 weeks now since we received anything.

The good news is that for almost 100% of the season it has remained under 0
up in the moutains (and even here in Munich) so the snow is still in pretty
good condition.


"Edi" wrote in message
...
Following on from NM's 'Where is the snow in Scotland ?' post...

Just wondering what are your impressions or experiences of the season in
Europe so far... ?

There are areas in the French Alps which are 1 metre down on real snow at
the moment...eg.3V, this winter it seems there is plenty of cold in the
French Alps at least but not the usual precipitation. In some areas eg.
Haute Marienne the tops are wind scoured so what natural snow there is is
being blown off. Worst start in 16 seasons according to some in that area.

What about other parts of the Alps, Italy, Pyrenees ? Further east sounds
a
lot better... Austria, Bulgaria ?

For me, as a piste basher/thrasher huge snow depths don't matter too much,
but at Xmas I did get fed up with artificial ! Personally, I would like
to
see a couple of good dumps in the 3 valleys before the French holidays
start
in earnest when we head to La Tania again.

All the best,

Edi

Val Thorens on 31 Jan had turf showing through at 2900m. Many pistes were
covered in rock dust and small pebbles following the high wind with the
result that afternoon skiing was very spring like even at 3000m. Not good
news for later on unless there is some serious snow without high winds (and
no sign of that in the next week or so).
Mark Hunter
"AH" wrote in message
...
Its been very good in Austria/Germany so far, however some new snow now
would be great cause its been about 2 weeks now since we received
anything.

The good news is that for almost 100% of the season it has remained under
0 up in the moutains (and even here in Munich) so the snow is still in
pretty good condition.


"Edi" wrote in message
...
Following on from NM's 'Where is the snow in Scotland ?' post...

Just wondering what are your impressions or experiences of the season in
Europe so far... ?

There are areas in the French Alps which are 1 metre down on real snow at
the moment...eg.3V, this winter it seems there is plenty of cold in the
French Alps at least but not the usual precipitation. In some areas eg.
Haute Marienne the tops are wind scoured so what natural snow there is is
being blown off. Worst start in 16 seasons according to some in that
area.

What about other parts of the Alps, Italy, Pyrenees ? Further east sounds
a
lot better... Austria, Bulgaria ?

For me, as a piste basher/thrasher huge snow depths don't matter too
much,
but at Xmas I did get fed up with artificial ! Personally, I would like
to
see a couple of good dumps in the 3 valleys before the French holidays
start
in earnest when we head to La Tania again.

All the best,

Edi

Fine summary of snow conditions.

Thanks. That will be very handy.