Flaine?

How is Flaine faring in the mild weather. We're going next weekend for a
week!

JF

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 08:47:34 GMT, (JF) wrote:

How is Flaine faring in the mild weather. We're going next weekend for a
week!

Just back from running a 4-day holiday during which we found some
fabulous conditions to ski. Fresh, although quite wet, snow fell above
~200m on Friday evening and again, but even lower (~1800m) later on
Saturday, so there have been plenty of fresh track opportunity. We had
two mixed groups, including six boarders, but everyone agreed that the
skiing, and the weekend as a whole, had been absolutely fabulous.

Best areas for fresh snow yesterday were left off Dolomie (but don't
go close to the cliffs, as a number of small slides were evident), the
top of the Tete de Lindars next to Fred, and the area between Mephisto
and the Aujon area, including the runs around the Grand Grenier lift.
The aujon lift hasn't been open, so if it does there should still be
lots of fresh stuff around there.

It was looking like more snow when we left yesterday evening, which
would be welcome of course, but as temperatures have been only around
the 5-10degC range for several days, the pistes are still in
remarkably good shape. Sure, they're quite soft, verging on the slushy
in places, lower down and late in the day, but only in a few places is
the snow getting brown, Some of the upper runs are absolutely superb.

A quick glance at the six-day forecast (on the skiclub site) shows
that more cool temperatures are exoected, so I'd suggest that next
weekend should still be very nice indeed.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

In article ,
(Ace) wrote:

Just back from running a 4-day holiday during which we found some
fabulous conditions to ski. Fresh, although quite wet, snow fell above
~200m on Friday evening and again, but even lower (~1800m) later on
Saturday, so there have been plenty of fresh track opportunity. We had
two mixed groups, including six boarders, but everyone agreed that the
skiing, and the weekend as a whole, had been absolutely fabulous.

Thanks, looks like they're getting a smattering of snow at the moment. It
was superb this time last year. So fingers crossed :-)

JF

Came back from Flaine yesterday... Most of the Grand Massif including
the higher pistes in Flaine were so slushy it was pretty much like
skiing in porridge !... High temps, loads of rain, no freeze at night,
lots of low cloud, thousands of UK snowplowers due to the early
easter... overall it wasn't much fun :-(

Steve

" wrote in message :

In article ,
(Ace) wrote:

Just back from running a 4-day holiday during which we found some
fabulous conditions to ski. Fresh, although quite wet, snow fell above
~200m on Friday evening and again, but even lower (~1800m) later on
Saturday, so there have been plenty of fresh track opportunity. We had
two mixed groups, including six boarders, but everyone agreed that the
skiing, and the weekend as a whole, had been absolutely fabulous.

Thanks, looks like they're getting a smattering of snow at the moment. It
was superb this time last year. So fingers crossed :-)

JF

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 13:33:16 +0000, "Steve"
wrote:

Came back from Flaine yesterday... Most of the Grand Massif including
the higher pistes in Flaine were so slushy it was pretty much like
skiing in porridge !... High temps, loads of rain, no freeze at night,
lots of low cloud, thousands of UK snowplowers due to the early
easter... overall it wasn't much fun :-(

Your pot is half-empty, I take it? My wife and I skiied there with two
different groups, totalling 17 people, through to Monday afternoon and
_everyone_ had a great day's skiing/boarding. Which particular runs
did you dislike so much?

Dave, the Ski Club rep who's there at the moment, reckons there was
loads of fresh snow (again) yesterday morning and more was falling
through the day. And with nearly three metres of snowpack, the surface
snow that may soften up during the day is getting nice and firm again
overnight.

Nothing wrong with a little bit of slush, anyway; just pretend it's
powder and practice your technique. Or moguls, for that matter... or
slalom... basically, soft snow, although tiring, can be great fun,
provided there's enough depth, which was certainly the case throughout
the Grand Massif earlier this week.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

Ace wrote:


Nothing wrong with a little bit of slush, anyway; just pretend it's
powder and practice your technique. Or moguls, for that matter... or
slalom... basically, soft snow, although tiring, can be great fun,
provided there's enough depth, which was certainly the case throughout
the Grand Massif earlier this week.


Too right. If you're having trouble in slush try renting a pair of fat
skis (Pocket Rockets or similar), they make a huge difference. And now
is definitely the time of year to have a go at the bumps, they are much
easier in warmer conditions.

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 21:15:40 +0100, Steve Haigh
wrote:

Ace wrote:


Nothing wrong with a little bit of slush, anyway; just pretend it's
powder and practice your technique. Or moguls, for that matter... or
slalom... basically, soft snow, although tiring, can be great fun,
provided there's enough depth, which was certainly the case throughout
the Grand Massif earlier this week.


Too right. If you're having trouble in slush try renting a pair of fat
skis (Pocket Rockets or similar), they make a huge difference.

Oh aye, I forgot about that. Guess what I've been skiing on all
season? :-)

And now
is definitely the time of year to have a go at the bumps, they are much
easier in warmer conditions.

That too. I took a 2.5 week skiier down the marmotte run on Monday -
she hardly even flinched. Then again, I've never seen anyone ski so
well with so little experience. And trust her leader, too :=}
--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

Ace wrote:
On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 21:15:40 +0100, Steve Haigh
wrote:


Ace wrote:


Nothing wrong with a little bit of slush, anyway; just pretend it's
powder and practice your technique. Or moguls, for that matter... or
slalom... basically, soft snow, although tiring, can be great fun,
provided there's enough depth, which was certainly the case throughout
the Grand Massif earlier this week.


Too right. If you're having trouble in slush try renting a pair of fat
skis (Pocket Rockets or similar), they make a huge difference.


Oh aye, I forgot about that. Guess what I've been skiing on all
season? :-)

Finally went for the Scratch BCs meself. Fantastic. Each to his/her own
and all that, but if you're in the market for a pair of fat (sorry,
phat) skis these are well worth a demo. A bit heavier than the PRs, but
then I did get the humungous long ones, and all the better for it IMHO.



And now
is definitely the time of year to have a go at the bumps, they are much
easier in warmer conditions.


That too. I took a 2.5 week skiier down the marmotte run on Monday -
she hardly even flinched. Then again, I've never seen anyone ski so
well with so little experience. And trust her leader, too :=}

Marmotte being the steep north facing black run above Samoens? Pretty
good going, even if it was slushy. I took a couple of 6 week+ skiers
down it 2 weeks ago, they were not impressed. Dunno why, they managed
fine, but some people just like to [think they] look cool and cruise
easy runs all day I guess. Perhaps it was a bit too warm to be working
them that hard:-)

On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 20:18:52 +0100, Steve Haigh
wrote:

Ace wrote:
On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 21:15:40 +0100, Steve Haigh
wrote:

Too right. If you're having trouble in slush try renting a pair of fat
skis (Pocket Rockets or similar), they make a huge difference.


Oh aye, I forgot about that. Guess what I've been skiing on all
season? :-)

Finally went for the Scratch BCs meself. Fantastic. Each to his/her own
and all that, but if you're in the market for a pair of fat (sorry,
phat) skis these are well worth a demo. A bit heavier than the PRs, but
then I did get the humungous long ones, and all the better for it IMHO.

I skied on them for three days back in November, on mainly hard-pack
in Kirkwood (Tahoe). I enjoyed them tremendously, especially on
hard/icy piste, where they are undoubtedly much better than the PR. I
think the extra width and flex of the PR will still make them better
in both soft and cruddy snow off-piste. But probably the BC is a
better all-rounder, yes.

That too. I took a 2.5 week skiier down the marmotte run on Monday -
she hardly even flinched. Then again, I've never seen anyone ski so
well with so little experience. And trust her leader, too :=}

Marmotte being the steep north facing black run above Samoens? Pretty
good going, even if it was slushy.

That's the one, and it wasn't even slushy, just nicely soft, but quite
big moguls, which tested a couple of the more experienced skiers.

I took a couple of 6 week+ skiers
down it 2 weeks ago, they were not impressed. Dunno why, they managed
fine, but some people just like to [think they] look cool and cruise
easy runs all day I guess. Perhaps it was a bit too warm to be working
them that hard:-)

This particular girl is very determined and has a great attitude to it
all. Very fit and strong as well, which helps. The fact that I'd got
her cutting fresh tracks[1] in 'powder'[2] the day before had
undoubtedly helped her confidence and her trust in my ability to judge
what she could do, but ultimately it's self-belief that does it.

[1] Perfectly linked parallel turns, too, which was nice.
[2] Actually about 10cm of heavy fresh snow, but powder sounds better.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

.. The fact that I'd got
her cutting fresh tracks[1] in 'powder'[2] the day before had
undoubtedly helped her confidence and her trust in my ability to judge
what she could do, but ultimately it's self-belief that does it.

I hope you weren't passing on any tips Bruce

cheers,

Greg