J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ise

I think you know full well what skins are so knock it on the head maybe?

Iceman wrote:So, reading between the lines the reports can be accurate or miles off?

140cm could be 140cm of loose stuff - meaning 70cm(ish)of packed stuff?

so half everything and that is worse case scenario....?

That graph certainly looks 'interesting'

The trick is probably to read between the lines of the reports and read a few days worth to get an idea how it's shaping up. Halving everything is pretty pessimistic, we're a way into winter now so a lot of that is going to be consolidated.

bandit wrote:I just knew that this thread would turn into a kit fest. Just wait until they get onto comparing the length of their ice axes :D

Ross When choosing a set of skins, if you can get them pre-cut to suit, go for it. I did the cut on my Colltex and I found it quite stressful. In one hand, a cheap Stanley knife and in the other hand, £100 worth of skins. with the 1st cut, there is no going back!

just got a new one actually, Air tech evo slider, 53cm which is just nice.

I think g3 supply some skins with their special cutter which is apparently easier. Personally, I've never cut any, I've always got the supplier to do it for me.

Iceman wrote:
This touches on a question that I have had in my head for years, now I feel is the time to ask it.

I am off to Morzine on Saturday for a few days, it says the snow at the top is 140cm. Is this 140cm packed or 140cm 'loose'

A simple question, one that has taken me 3 years to try and find the answer to....can you help out there? :mrgreen:

sorry, I don't think today's going to be the day :lol:

Typically the measurements are just how far up a measuring pole the snow is that day, you need the descriptive report to get any sense at all of what the snow is. Here in Switzerland you can read snow pack profile reports collated by SLF (Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research) taken by people around the country, these are based on ram penetrometer profiles, that's basically a tube device you put in the snow that measures resistance to force through the snow pack, that produces a fairly standard report but it needs some training to read, this is an example at Saas Grund a few days back :



More information than most people want :lol:

Pretty stable, failure at RB6 using a rutschblock test so reasonably safe to ski although there's a high temperature profile there so it will be interesting to see later reports from that station and how it develops.

Wiggy7 wrote:Its not spam - had such a great time in Wagrain I thought I would share the experience.

you're quite sure, on reflection, that's not your website then?

Wiggy7 wrote:Your right - Alpendorf and surrounding area is great !!

Went to Wagrain over Christmas and New Year - what a great place, ski area was massive with links to over 11 villages - very few lift queues.

Wagrain and surrounding areas must be the best kept secret - forget France, transfer time from Salzburg airport just 45-50 mins.

Stayed in a lovely apartment overlooking Wagrain Market Town - the apartment was large with vaulted ceiling, Wellness area etc.

There is also a great Water Park open all year round.

What a place !!

4 times looks like spam :roll:

amazing photo :!: obviously a European Ibex of course. The horns were evolved to defend against bears, lynx and wolves and of course predictably led to them being much prized and just as predictably being hunted to near extinction, they've recovered well and there's reckoned to be around 300,000 in the alps nowadays

Here's a bachelor herd, that's a gang of juvenile males, hanging around above Zinal :

that's normal, snow will tend to compact. In simple terms, when it falls you've got big flakes with complicated shapes, low density basically.

Then you can get some mechanical influence, for example wind transport or plain simple loading where just the crystals lying on each other alters them. Those mechanical effects will reduce the crystal size and pack them which will make the snow more dense.

Then you've an energy flux, mostly that means solar effects from the sun directly or on a cloud day just infrared radiation, the flip side of that is heat loss, so infrared radiation back out and evaporation etc. That's what flux means in this context, energy in and out. Like the mechanical effect this makes the snow more dense, but unlike mechanical effects it doesn't always make it more stable.

There's some other effects, dry snow kinetic growth, dry snow metamorphism and melt metamorphism, but basically the point is this, once snow has fallen that's the start of a process that goes on until spring and that process is more complex than "snow falls - snow melts" :D

So, is 60cm of high density snow worse than 120cm of unpacked snow? not necessarily, sounds like they have a packed base there, some fresh snow would only make it perfect :lol: