Snow

Yeah, slapped wrist :oops:

The temp is scheduled to rise to 14 deg in the Alps, this week. It doesn't mean much.

Most of the Alpine sub-2000m piste skiing is formed on a base of artificial snow, right across the Alps. When the pisteurs can see several days of zero degree temp coming, (this could be night temps), then they will start up the machines, building "whales" (little hills) of snow. This will be carried out over several weeks. Look for them on your web cams, that is the start of winter.

When enough A/S has been produced, the piste machines spread the whales, aiming to form a 20cm base of heavy wet snow. Controls are computerised. Once the base is in position, lighter snow can be produced.

Then the real stuff arrives ~ happiness!

Dave, I sleep soundly. :D

Just read my Avalanche Bulletin from the HAT team, and they have a slightly different take on the prospect of the warm wet spell in the forecasts. Their view is that it is welcome, because it will help the lying snow to consolidate and bond = less unstable snow = lower avalanche risk during the season.

When we were at Tignes, a couple of weeks ago, they were spraying the mountain with water at night (even though it was totally brown and no snow anywhere apart from on the piste), and I wondered what they were doing. I asked someone, and they said it was to build up a layer of ice, to cool the ground down, and encourage the snow to stay there, because it was freezing at night.

Ally

very clever! wish scotland would try freezing the ground up north-might encourage it to lie for more than 3 hours!

Nothing can stop the hairdryer winds.

Must admit I'm getting a little twitchy looking at my Dec 12th departure for the ski-circus :( although the boast a 90% piste cover with artificial snow I don't fancy surfing or having my edges redone every night. Last time I rode artificial snow was down the abfarht on the Ahorn in Mayrhofen in April. My skiing buddy commented on the 6ft high swathes of water everytime I made a hard turn!!!