Snow Quality in the Alps vs. North America

Since we are now treading dangerously close to Gpaul territory, I'm waiting until we're provided with a scanned-in airline itinerary, including a confirmed arrival city, before I post any more recommendations.

Nothing personal, Jason.
 
There are 24 years with annual snow totals for both Val d'Isere and Avoriaz. Positive correlation means they tend to have good, average or bad seasons at the same time. 91% is a very high number, comparable to the correlations between Mammoth and June, Alta and Solitude, Killington and Sugarbush, or Mt. Rainier to Washington State ski areas.

The caveat is that 24 observations is not as many as I would like to see. In North America, where nearly all the data is month-by-month, there are on average 120 common month observations with which to correlate areas and project annual snowfall.

The other difficulty in the Alps is the sharp divide between north and south. Val d'Isere and Isola are less than 1.5 degrees of latitude apart at similar longitude and have zero correlation. By contrast Oregon and California areas 6 degrees apart are still ~50% correlated and results at comparable distance are similar in the Rockies. Zermatt/Cervinia gets both northern and southern influences, doesn't correlate well with anywhere else in Fraser's data. So I had to live with the skimpy raw data that exists for my feature article. Fraser thinks those recent years are overall close enough to the long term climate there to be a reasonable representation.
 
Tony Crocker":1s10o5iz said:
Warth-Schröcken is quite modest in size by Euro standards, only 1,800 vertical. Maybe similar to Stuben, which is taller but not as wide.
Having already stayed twice in Lech with no complaints, for my next visit to the region, I'm going to try headquartering myself on the quieter and likely less expensive Warth-Schröcken side, known as the Bregenzerwald (Bregenzer Forest), the snowiest region in the Alps. In theory, you can spend at least a couple days checking out the two larger sectors there:

Damüls and Mellau
damuls mellau map.jpeg



Warth-Schröcken
warth map.jpg



And spend the other four to five days on the extensive Lech/Zurs side.
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That'd keep me busy for a week and then some.
 
jamesdeluxe":1ah4r4bc said:
That'd keep me busy for a week and then some.
It would. Damüls is another snow pocket, averages 312 inches at a low 4,690 feet. I don't think it's lift connected to Warth-Schröcken (maybe not on the Arlberg ticket either), but not far by road. Getting from the St. Anton complex to Warth is not so practical, sort of like going from Rothorn to Cervinia at Zermatt. If cost is no object, Lech looks like the best place to base in the area now from a ski perspective.
 
I just priced some lodging in Lech..I almost fell of my chair..Hopefully I will have a region picked out in a couple of weeks..
 
jasoncapecod":1znq07kc said:
I just priced some lodging in Lech..I almost fell of my chair..
That could mean either dirtbag cheap or 2nd mortgage. I'm guessing it's more in the realm of the latter.
 
Tony Crocker":3nzp2nzh said:
Damüls is another snow pocket, averages 312 inches at a low 4,690 feet. I don't think it's lift connected to Warth-Schröcken (maybe not on the Arlberg ticket either), but not far by road.
Correct: not lift connected, not part of the Ski Arlberg pass, but just down the road from Warth-Schröcken.

Here's an overview of the Bregenzerwald region. It appears to be several smaller ski areas, in close proximity as the crow flies, but not lift-connected. It's favored by German tourists because it's allegedly a straight shot from Munich, only 2.5 hours away, and now that W-S is connected to Lech, even better situated.

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We've discussed how the European use of trail kilometers is not the best way to measure the size of ski regions, but with the addition of Warth-Schröcken, Ski Arlberg must be close to the French Big 4 (3 Vallees, Espace Killy, Portes du Soleil, Paradiski) in terms of general size. Of course, we know that St. Anton and Lech aren't connected by lifts, so maybe not apples to apples.

5ab4a134a34f830b57c7d9167e0013c9--image
 
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