J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

It doesn't look like Chamonix got anywhere near the amount of snow forecast. The tourist office snow report says that there is 5-12cm at 1500 m http://www.chamonix.com/snow-report,89,en.html which tallies with what I see on the webcams and what I see on the ground here on the Swiss side of the border (I live about an hours drive from the Grand Montets car park). There is a bit more forecast for the rest of the week http://www.compagniedumontblanc.fr/en/weather-forecast but it will be very windy high up so the snow will get moved around a lot. The overall situation is very poor.

Your right in thinking that Chamonix needs a lot of snow especially on the Grand Montets there are a lot of very big rocks up there.

When I first saw the Salomon BBR I thought the tips looked remarkable similar to the tip on a Dupraz D1 snowboard.

I thought Serge Dupraz had probably had some design input, but this doesn't seem to be the case, as on Friday Serge launched the Dupraz D2 all-mountain skis.



They have an asymmetric side cut (one side for piste, the other for powder), a wider tail than the BBRs, and like the BBRs come in two sizes, 171cm (160/105/140) and 181cm (170/115/150) might be worth testing if you get the chance http://www.dupraz-skis.com/index.php?lang=gb

On the Grand Montets only Bochard, Pierre à Ric and Marmottons have snow cannons. The runs equipped with snow making machines are highlighted in yellow on the piste maps.

It's been far too warm lately, November was 2.5*C warmer than the 30 year average To make snow you need the wet bulb temp to be less than -3*C and to get a reasonable output it needs to be at least -8*C. If conditions are right i.e. cold enough day and night it should take about a week to get a base of 50cm down.

If they get enough snow next week it will only take a day or two to prepare the pistes.

The Pisteurs (ski patrollers) are the people responsible for safety and rescue. It's a pretty risky job that doesn't pay that well, but they always get to make the first tracks.



Snow making is carried out by the grooming team, its pretty labour intensive especially at this time of year when the base for the coming season is being laid down. It takes 40 people to operate Zermatt's 760 snow lances and 40 snow cannons. Snow cannons are gradually being replaced by lances as their operation can be automated.

The Chamonix ski areas have very limited snow making capacity (they normally don't need any) only 13% of the pistes are covered.

This is a good Chamonix valley specific forecast http://chamonix-meteo.com/index.php

At least 40% of skiers buy boots that are too big and two sizes is about average, as you have also have LLD (not unusual) the best thing to do would be to visit a good boot fitter who is also a Pedorthist. Colin Martin at http://www.solutions4feet.com/index.php in Bicester has an excellent reputation.

I wouldn't go to an outdoor sports equipment retailer as they don't usually have the expertise or the equipment to deal with complicated problems.

I have the iRega rescue call out app, just in case http://www.rega.ch/en/news/news/detail.aspx?id=1964

As well as speed the tracking apps display distance travelled, vertical meters skied, altitude and slope inclination. They also plot your position and your tracks on a map, unfortunately GPS isn't that good at measuring altitude (it's usually underestimated by about 20%) so you weren't going as fast as the speed displayed :(, but you did ski more vertical metres :-).

Snow socks aren't really a substitute for traditional snow chains; they wear out quickly, don't grip as well on snow, are almost useless on ice and have a tendency to come off the wheels on rear wheel drive cars, but they are much better than nothing if you get stuck. The Michelin Easy Grip is much better, although they are also a bit weak on ice and not as easy to put on as Michelin say.

There are loads of people with big powerful rear wheel drive cars in this part of the Alps (lots of taxi firms run E class Mercs) and they don't seem have any bother driving in winter. Don't be tempted to buy cheap winter tyres, although they are generally not too bad on snow their performance (stopping distance) on wet and dry roads is usually very poor, they also wear out much faster and have much greater rolling resistance. Beware of too good to be true deals on known brands (especially Continental) as they might well be fakes.