J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

At this time of year lots of pistes are made entirely from artificial snow. The goal is to put down a base layer about 40 cm thick in late November early December followed by another 20 cm in early January. Although it can be made at temperatures just below zero it's not very efficient, at –3 °C a snow canon will produce 9 m³/h requiring 5 kWh/m³, at –10 °C it will produce 60 m³/h requiring 1 kWh/m³.

Each season in Tyrol alone they make 40 million cubic meters, which is enough to cover 5400 hectares of piste. Somebody worked out that this would also cover a 2000 km long (roughly the distance from Innsbruck to Madrid) 4 lane motorway to the depth of 1 metre.

To make all of this requires 90 GWh of electricity and 16 million cubic metres of water at a cost of 120 to 160 million euros.

They have increased the frequency of the trains running from Visp to Zermatt from every hour to every half hour and introduced new rolling stock. Since the opening of the new Lötschberg tunnel in 2007 there has been a 45% increase in the number of passengers travelling between Visp and Zermatt so an increase in capacity was well overdue. Trains leave Geneva airport for Visp every half hour so previously some travellers had a half hour wait on Visp station.

I wouldn't wait until February, the boot fitting season in the UK starts in September, by the middle of December the good boot fitters will have already sold half their stock.

If you go to a good boot fitter you may well pay more than you would if you bought them elsewhere, but they should fit. If go down the try a few pairs on until you find a pair that are comfortable route you will most likely buy a pair that are too big. If they are too big you will need a new pair sooner than you will if you get a pair that are the right size. One pair of well fitting boots is a lot cheaper than 2 or more pairs of boots that don't fit.

If your custom footbeds cause pain then they haven't been made properly. Why didn't you take them back? They can be reheated and remoulded and if that doesn't work then they should just make you a new one. It's not always possible to get things right first time.

There are also a lot of people making these things that don't really know what they're doing, the better boot fitters mould them with the customer seated (semi-weighted) less skilled fitters mould footbeds with the customer standing (weighted) this is easier to do but the results aren't as good.

If you decide to buy a set of winter tyres make sure they are marked with the Three Peak Mountain Snow Flake (3PMSF ) pictogram as well as the M+S mark.



All winter tyres carry the M+S mark on the sidewall, but all tyres carrying this mark are not winter tyres. The M+S mark can also be applied to tyres manufactured using a 'summer' compound, it can also be found on all-season tyres and on tyres for 4X4s. It is just a manufacturer's statement that the tread and the materials used were designed to provide better performance in mud and snow than standard tyres. Tyres carrying the 3PMSF mark have to meet specified requirements. http://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-article/winter-tyres-don-t-rely-on-the-m-s-mark

This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbxQ_ymaDSE illustrates the increase in stopping distance of a Jeep Grand Cherokee (white car) fitted with winter (3PMSF) tyres and one fitted with M+S tyres, the one fitted with M+S tyres took an extra 80 metres to stop!

This is why you will be held to be at least partially to blame if you are involved in an accident in Switzerland during the winter if your car is not fitted with proper winter tyres.

Andid, I'm almost certain that the law in Italy says that you can either fit winter tyres or carry snow chains. In Aosta you either have to use winter tyres or carry chains between 15th November and 15th April or you could be fined 80 to 318 euro. If you continue to drive on winter tyres that have a speed rating less than that specified for the car (common practice along with fitting narrower higher profile tyres) after 15th May you can be fined between 419 and 1682 euro http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatico_invernale

If you decide not to go to St Anton you might have problems finding accommodation in places that have snow.

I think you will have to look further afield than the Austrian resorts mentioned above, if you want some halfway decent snow. All of the resorts that have a reasonable amount of snow are to the south of the main alpine ridge (the blue line on the map below), if you want to stay in Austria have a look at Obergurgl-Hochgurgl. Bear in mind that if any weather does arrive you might end up being on the wrong side of the ridge.



Austria has a pretty good public transport system you don't really need to use taxis except perhaps for short journeys, Rome2Rio is pretty good for basic planning https://www.rome2rio.com/

At moment the hotels in the Austrian resorts are still well booked for Christmas / New year, there have been very few cancellations and they seem to think that they will have enough snow http://tirol.orf.at/news/stories/2684224/

If you're flying into Zurich you could go to Zermatt or Saas Fee, although finding accommodation will be difficult.

The TCS carried out some tests on them a few years ago http://www.tcs.ch/fr/assets/tous-les-tests/pneus/5033_02_infotechTCS_Test-Chaines-Neige-2011_fr.pdf they seem to be OK, good grip on snow, not so good on ice and as you might expect not very durable. The RUD Hybrid looks a better bet if you want something that's easy to put on and will last more than a few km in mixed snow / tarmac conditions.

He might not have applied to convert it in to flats under Lex Weber, anybody wishing to do so must be able to prove that their hotel is no longer financially viable.

"Le changement d'affectation d'établissements hôteliers déjà existants le 11 mars 2012 est admissible dans le cadre de l'art. 4. A titre exceptionnel, de tels établissements peuvent aussi changer d'affectation et devenir des résidences secondaires non affectées à l'hébergement touristique qualifié. Il faut pour cela notamment que l'établissement ait été exploité durant au moins 25 ans et qu'une expertise indépendante constate qu'il ne peut plus l'être demanière rentable et que la faute n'en incombe pas à celui qui en a la possession."

The new management has recently added comments to some of their Tripadvisor reviews. They say they have spent £1 million improving the sound proofing and have converted the rooms on the first floor into a breakfast room. They have also renovated 2 of the guest rooms and will renovate the rest next summer. I can't see how the hotel part can make any money, in other parts of Switzerland you can't get a licence to run a hotel unless it has at least 30 rooms, as they are not considered to be financially viable if they have less than 30 rooms. So they must make the money in the bars.

The Casbah is not part of the Farinet it's a separate business owned by someone else, Warren Smith was one the previous owners.

The sun is too low in the sky at this time of the year to be a problem. The problem at the moment is caused by a strong south-westerly airflow blowing over the Alps causing a foehn effect.

A foehn results from the ascent of moist air up the windward slopes; as this air climbs, it expands and cools until it becomes saturated with water vapour, after which it cools more slowly because its moisture is condensing as rain or snow, releasing latent heat. By the time it reaches the peaks and stops climbing, the air is quite dry. The ridges of the mountains are usually obscured by a bank of clouds known as a foehn wall, which marks the upper limit of precipitation on the windward slopes. As the air makes its leeward descent, it is compressed and warms rapidly all the way downslope because there is little water left to evaporate and absorb heat; thus, the air is warmer and drier when it reaches the foot of the leeward slope than when it begins its windward ascent.



Today the temperature in Chamonix (1035m) on the north side of the main alpine ridge reached 8°C, where I live at 700m it reached almost 12°C.