Latest posts for the topic "Feeling anxious"

Feeling anxious

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 22:53:56 GMT

We are going to Chamonix on the 3rd Jan. I am beginning to feel anxious about the snow reports, :cry: What do you experts think am I right to be worried?

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 07:19:04 GMT

I think where you're going you'll be absolutely fine come 3rd Jan on the other hand I'm off to Morzine for NY going on the 28th and I don't know whether to take ski boots or cycle shoes!

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 09:29:01 GMT

Chamonix (and Morzine) should get a bit of snow tomorrow - looks like 10cm+, could be a bit more locally - and the end of the month is looking promising at the moment.

I think Ranchero said he's out (in Chamonix) next week so hopefully he can tell us what's what?

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 11:42:26 GMT

I drove by Chamonix yesterday morning and there was a dusting of snow down to the main road.
You will be fine.

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:01:34 GMT

I am heading out on Saturday so will give an update once have put a few turns in.

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 21:35:09 GMT

Thank you... To be honest I have reached the age where I have to choose ski or apres ski.... If there is no snow then my choice will be made for me:-)

Re:Feeling anxious

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 16:56:22 GMT

thank you! We're off to Les Gets on the 28th but have friends who are there for Christmas, we were very anxious earlier looking at too much greenery on some of the reporting sites!

Re:Feeling anxious

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 19:16:10 GMT

Jan is a mile away in snow terms for January. It is already (today) snowing in Chamonix. Great town/resort and I feel sure that that when you arrive early Jan. you will have loads of snow. As a backup, Le Tour, locally accessible and very high will have snow. Have a blast! pole Plant.

Re:Feeling anxious

Sun, 21 Dec 2014 22:14:05 GMT

Thank you pole plant and Ranchero, hope the skiing is good for you two too!

Re:Feeling anxious

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 10:35:05 GMT

Just having second breakfast after a few hrs skiing this morning at Grands Montets. Conditions on piste were very nice first thing. As expected it got pretty busy by 10am as all surrounding resorts are using area for their ski lessons. If your renting go for a nice pair of piste skis.

Re:Feeling anxious

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 10:40:46 GMT

The reports say temperatures will drop greatly after xmas. That should allow the cannons to do their stuff.

Re:Feeling anxious

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:03:27 GMT

We are on our way to Les Carroz and Flaine on Saturday so I will post daily updates for that area. :shock:

Re:Feeling anxious

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:56:45 GMT

Surely proper snow is required in addition to artificial? Or can you ski in nothing but artificial if it is cold enough to make?

Re:Feeling anxious

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 17:52:15 GMT

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 oC a snow canon will produce 9 m3/h requiring 5 kWh/m3, at -10 oC 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.

Re:Feeling anxious

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 22:18:08 GMT

Is that a c&p from a Google search?

To be precise it is at or below -2.6C that it is the most efficient temperature for snow making ;)

And it has a special chemical added to the water that is bio degradable :)

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 12:44:55 GMT

We're in Les Gets for Xmas and there is absolutely no snow! They've opened one blue run and the general feeling is that's possibly for insurance. You can ski in Avoriaz if you want to queue for hours at Ardent or Prodain and that's if you're able to buy a daily pass as they're not available unless you're in Morzine and even then you have to queue for the next day with no guarantee that you'll get a pass. There's a flurry due on Xmas day and maybe 9cm on Sunday but that still will not be enough for Les Gets to 'open'.

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 13:43:21 GMT

You really have to feel for anyone in that situation.

Not much consolation but I see Les Gets website says that it is refunding all pre-purchased passes for this week. They also say there's a 'crowd' control limit put in place for Avoriaz capping the number of day passes being sold - I guess you can understand.

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 17:00:47 GMT

The temps are due to drop so the snow cannons will be fired up.

There's currently 38 runs open in avoriaz, once you are up the mountain it will be better. Yes there will be queues but I have a feeling they will release more lift passes.

At home in dreary England or on holiday in crisp mountain air. No brainer for me

I am off to les gets on 31 jan. Like to think it will be better, if it isn't I will find a pub.

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 21:51:02 GMT

Iceman, as mentioned previously I've lived in the Alps for quite a long time, this is my 25th season. The 1989/90 season also had a really bad start, it didn't snow until about the middle of January.

In the early years I used to help out with snowmaking at one of the small local areas, back then it was a pretty labour intensive business, manhandling snow cannons and fire hoses at temperatures of -10oC and below is extremely hard work. These days most of them are plumbed in and controlled from a nice warm control room. So I know from firsthand experience how much snow a snow canon can make at a certain temperature.

I found the information about snowmaking in Tyrol in an article on the website belonging to the Austrian equivalent to the BBC http://orf.at/ I thought "Wow that's a lot of snow" or something roughly equivalent!

Austria has invested an enormous amount of money in snowmaking, about 60% of the pistes there are covered in artificial snow. In order to do that they have made some pretty big alterations to the landscape, I don't think you could get away with building something like this elsewhere.

Unfortunately I don't think they have much choice, winter tourism, ski equipment manufacturing, building ski lifts, piste machines and snowmaking equipment account for about 5% of Austrian GDP. The UK retail sector also accounts for about 5% of GDP, so it's tremendously important to the economy.

The future is going to be challenging http://www.academia.edu/3213455/Snowmaking_and_climate_change_Future_options_for_snow_production_in_Tyrolean_ski_resorts This year has been the warmest since records began 247 years ago, November and December were over 3 degrees warmer than the average temperature from 1981-2010.

Re:Feeling anxious

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 22:47:34 GMT

That's all very interesting. It read like a copy and paste.

Not sure of the reason for your justification. Just saying

What's your opinion on my theory?

Re:Feeling anxious

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 08:13:32 GMT

I read somewhere that in 80 years there probably won't be possible to ski anywhere in the Alps due to climate change. So we should consider ourselves lucky. Future generations won't have it that good.

Re:Feeling anxious

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 10:42:53 GMT

I remember 20 years ago someone saying "in 20 years time it won't be possible to ski in the Alps due to global warming....".
Clearly they were wrong... or were they! :twisted:

Re:Feeling anxious

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 11:10:02 GMT

I do hope the 50cm forecast for ADH this weekend turns up. It's looking scarily bare today! Arriving on the 3rd.

Different story in Japan, after a delayed start, Niseko are on track for a record December. 3m 19cm of snow so far! Getting much more excited about going there by the minute!

Re:Feeling anxious

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 14:14:35 GMT

Fingers crossed and it won't look like that come Saturday afternoon...

Re:Feeling anxious

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 14:42:02 GMT

smartski wrote:I remember 20 years ago someone saying "in 20 years time it won't be possible to ski in the Alps due to global warming....".
Clearly they were wrong... or were they! :twisted:

Well, the term is "climate change" and it's happening indeed even if slowly (luckily for us).

Re:Feeling anxious

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:14:40 GMT

We are in Vars (Alpes du Sud) and while there is less snow than previous years, all the major runs are open. The canons are on whenever possible. We have pretty much skiied where we would usually ski with perfect conditions - though it is icy in places but better than ADH this time last year. There is little snow on the slopes on the otherside of the town.

The good news is that it is quiet. By 3pm there are pretty much just the ski schools and the diehards (us) on the slopes. Longest queue has been less than 5 minutes.

Snow is forecast this weekend - we will be gone but hopefully there will ve snow in the Pyrenees so we can sneak in some weekends there in the next few weeks!

Re:Feeling anxious

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:32:14 GMT

verbier_ski_bum wrote:
Well, the term is "climate change" and it's happening indeed even if slowly (luckily for us).

Ah, yes they may call it Climate change now, but 20 years ago it was def global warming. -)

Re:Feeling anxious

Sun, 28 Dec 2014 13:32:57 GMT

Would be good to hear from those of you out there this week...... Counting down until the 3rd

Re:Feeling anxious

Sun, 28 Dec 2014 16:16:21 GMT

Watterski wrote:Would be good to hear from those of you out there this week......

They'll be too busy skiing... once the lifts are open and the slopes made safe...

Looking at the snow on the ground, I'd hope you've stopped feeling anxious by now... :lol: ...although, given the current forecast trend for next week, you'll be lucky to see the sun much... 8)

It's not locked in but there's a good possibility of next Saturday seeing snow to low levels and another "challenging" transfer day. So watch the forecast closely and be prepared!

Re:Feeling anxious

Sun, 28 Dec 2014 19:29:01 GMT

smartski wrote:I remember 20 years ago someone saying "in 20 years time it won't be possible to ski in the Alps due to global warming....".
Clearly they were wrong... or were they! :twisted:

Indeed. The term "Global warming" stuck around for some 10 years, until it was noticed that, errm, there was no global warming.

So the terminology changed conveniently to "climate change".

Yes, well,except that "climate change" has existed since prior to the dinosaurs. CC has always been with us. It will always be with us.

Hence there is little use in trying to make a point about CC, unless one is trying to imply a cause of CC.

Re:Feeling anxious

Sun, 28 Dec 2014 23:26:35 GMT

Just listening to radio five live to a family travelling with Inghams ( our agent) having a terrible time trying to get home. Another family stuck in Chambery still not able to get to their resort........