J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

Not looking good but no need to panic just yet, wait until next Thursday!



A weak area of low pressure over the Gulf of Genoa is sending warm moist air to the north, the forecast is for this to continue until Saturday when there might be a bit of snow.

If the temperature falls to a level where they can make artificial snow at a reasonable rate it will only take about 100 hrs for them to cover the pistes with a 40cm thick base layer (standard preseason procedure), to which they normally add a further 20cm in early January. It won't look pretty, but there should be something to slide around on.

If you get fed up you could take a 'cure' http://www.gastein.com/en/thermen-gesundheit/gasteiner-kur radon therapy sounds interesting.

Here you are OldAndy, just click on the chart to down load it as an Excel table http://www.tourobs.ch/fr-ch/bons-plans/calendrier-des-vacances/calendrier-des-vacances.aspx for some reason the Italian school holidays are missing, they can be found here: http://www.skuola.net/ritorno-scuola/calendario-scolastico-2014-2015x.html

Not living in the UK makes booking a skiing holiday much easier. We just wait until it looks like conditions will be good and book then, sometimes we've waited until as late as the Thursday before the Saturday we wanted to set off on. Having kids obviously makes things more difficult, but we have always managed to find somewhere to stay.

Living in Geneva puts you within easy driving range of hundreds of ski resorts. Money is tight in most of Europe at the moment, you're bound to find something.

To get back to the OP's question the short answer is nobody knows, its not possible to forecast the weather in the alps with any degree of accuracy more than 3 days.

The alps are divided by the main alpine ridge which extends from the Mediterranean coast just west of Savona to Leopoldsberg near Vienna.



The main alpine ridge divides the Alps into three main regions (the northern, the southern and western Alps). When a storm comes in from the west, most of the snow will fall in the western Alps, from the south in the southern Alps and from the north in the northern Alps. Last season lots of the storms came from the south so Italy got a lot of snow and the parts of Austria north of the ridge got less than the normal amount of snow.

This Autumn most of the snow that has fallen so far has been brought by southerly storms so most of the snow is in parts of north west Italy and south west Switzerland and in some parts of the French alps that profit from a phenomenon called a "Retour d'Est". There is another area of low pressure over the Gulf of Genoa at the moment which has brought another 15cm to the slopes above Cervinia and about 10cm to Saas Fee and Zermatt.

The weather in Austria has been very mild, November was the warmest since records began almost 250 years ago, so snow making has been very limited. Temperatures are now starting to fall so they should be able to fire up the snow canons and with a bit of luck they will get some natural snow before Christmas. St Anton is normally a pretty snowy place, one week I was there it put 3m down at village level. There was so much snow on the roofs that they had to shovel it off to stop them collapsing.

As has been mentioned going on a skiing holiday in early December is very risky, to minimise the risk go to somewhere with a glacier or one of the places known for having early snow like Livigno (free lift pass) or Sulden am Ortler.

I wouldn't worry too much about them not having an English version of the website, it's not unusual in Italy. There isn't a lot of information in Italian either. It's a Garni hotel (B&B only, no half board) with a separate "gourmet" restaurant. If you eat in the hotel the total cost will almost certainly be more than half board at one of the other hotels in Folgarida. There seems to be a lift pass included deal the "Convention Skipass", but there are no details. There are a couple of reviews here http://www.holidaycheck.com/hr/0a32d418-289a-30bd-b6da-fa13b59e4962
Madonna di Campiglio is better situated, but by Italian standards it's very expensive. It's where wealthy Italians go to be seen, in spite of that it's still a really nice place to ski https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkWcC8ZLR2I&list=UUcoNJpsMc0hV64FzQ_Yu0fQ .

The Salomon 3v has been discontinued, so most of the ones in hire shops are likely to be well passed their best. The life of a ski is measured in weeks, the internal components start to break down quite quickly so anything that is put into a hire pool is pretty tired by the end of the season. A really good ski that is worn out will be nowhere near as good as a less good nearly new ski.

I can't see any reason to do that, it's easier to flex and a lot less effort. Whilst it's very unlikely that anyone not born into a skiing family in the alps could get to Berger's level, it's still possible to attain a high level and maintain it until you're well into your 70s

La Thuile only has one ski school. The Italiens arn't really interested in competition.

If you want a ski that's quicker edge to edge you will have to get something with a narrower waist, slalom skis are the quickest skis from edge to edge and have waist widths of 65 – 68mm.