J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ise

it's pretty winterery weather right now and some precipitation is forecast. Just got the winter tyres on as well.

It's close, it could snow today, it feels like it here.

Over in Austria it's been snowing a lot though.

Kymbillie wrote:Gutted... Though There is always somewhere open!!! Sometimes you just have to look for it rather than just flicking open the travel broucher. Anyway its suppose to be an awesome season this year. Everywhere is getting snow this week across europe and the majority of canada So we will just have to make the best of it.

That's a recent discovery for the mainstream tour operators, until recently their season ran strictly from Xmas to Easter

It's not snowing here either :cry: Although the snow canons are working hard :

Kymbillie wrote: Most ski resorts were open untill at least april if not may.

Easter was later this year. Most places shut just after Easter and that's what will happen this coming season as well. For the most part stations will close after Easter regardless of when it is which is going to make this a short season for most stations. That small group of higher stations will carry on until May as usual of course.

Horrible timing though, straight from a busy Febuaray with peak time to Easter and then closed :-( That gap between Feb' and Easter is often just great.

Kymbillie wrote:well smarty pants I believe many of the resorts across europe were open untill may last year and I believe that included 3valleys. As I said its best to wait untill almost last minute to book at that time of year as the snow can become quite unpredictable. Its also if the tour companies are sending the tourists the resort is not going to be closed. I would recommend crystal, its very unlikely they are going to send you to a closed resort. (if the resorts closed they dont make any money, and no snow equals unhappy tourists)

Though as a general tip for the alpes Stay high and stay north. No point going to the southern alpes or a low lying resort as the sun will have killed the snow.

You'll find that the closing date is tied to Easter which was later last year. It's only a minority that habitually open until May, 3V certainly but Val d'Isere, Verbier, Zermatt etc as well of course.

Most stations will be closing April 6th next season I think.

I'm not sure I'm understand what's meant by the southern alps though, like Alpe d'Huez or Les Deux Alpes? Should be excellent in April and open.

It's a question of balance and confidence which is why it's such a hurdle as you learn to ride.

There are good reasons why the lift people want you to ride with one foot out of the binding, if you ignore what the lift guys tell you there's a good chance they'll either refuse you access to the lift or stop the lift until you comply. If you do ignore them you're sending a message that you can't balance on your board and that you don't really care about the other people on the lift and you don't want to be that guy :D

Like oopalley and moremountain suggested you need to do plenty of sliding around with only one foot in the binding on easier terrain and get used to it. Once you've acquired that balance the lifts shouldn't hold any problems for you and of course it's all good practice anyway to improve your balance.

Funnily enough the worst people to share a lift with turn out to be skiers without poles though :D

bandit wrote:
I'm coming round to the idea that either Zermatt or Saas Fee may be better destinations for a post Easter ski in Valais.

http://bergbahnen.zermatt.ch/e/skigebiet/
http://www.saas-fee.ch/en/welcome.cfm

definitely, if you had to make a prediction now it'd be Saas or Zermatt.

bandit wrote:Here's a photo from January 2006 showing one of the glacier slopes and a drag lift. The snow was good :D

It was a great snow year though 2006 everywhere.

http://snowslider.net/gallery/images/2007_-_ski/2007_01_28_-_saint_luc___chandolin/a95_2942.jpg



That's Jan 28th from St Luc, in fact you were there, and the snow line over at Crans is really high.

It's all moot anyway, I'm practically certain that Crans is closed April 6th.