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We finally got a break in the weather on our departure day from Portes du Soleil. We drove 55 minutes to Ardent, which has the most efficient access to Avoriaz' alpine terrain and also gave us a half hour head start on our relocation drive to Flaine. We ascended Les Cases with a nicer view this...

On Tuesday we saw 6 inches new snow on patio furniture outside breakfast, but no sun. We got on the 9:45 shuttle to La Linga. Once on the mountain visibility was like Sunday: clouds were mainly on top of the ridgelines but light was still flat. Nonetheless we had to try some next-to-the-piste...

It faces south. When we are there in February it's often so cold that doesn't matter much. In late March it's more likely. I wasn't there, but Tseeb's Whitehorn chute runs with Jimk (and therefore all of LL's north side) sounded like 100% excellent winter snow to me. Jimk's recent post has...

I wonder which is the least reliable, Megeve or Deer Valley East Village. It’s apples and oranges. The East Village is close to being desert, but I guess OK for snowmaking. Megeve is all about the proportion of rain vs. snow, like the lowest places in the PNW.

I was deterred by that wind report 3/26. And the Miami couple in the spa did not like conditions that day, though I'm sure they did not venture off piste. I had already aggravated my knee with the short Hohtalli off piste pitch on 3/24, so we decided to leave Zermatt, ski an on-piste day at at...

We stayed at Hotel Macchi in Chatel, which sprawls over a couple miles. At the south end of town the La Linga lift connects into the Plain Dranse terrain and then to Avoriaz. In the other direction is Super Chatel, in general mellower terrain with connections to Morclon, Tronchey and Torgon...

How much wind effect/sastrugi on Zermatt's off-piste? Report said only 8 inches new snow and a lot of wind.

I tried. Phone answerer said you had to be there in person.

We daytripped Saas-Fee, used a parking garage and shuttle bus to the Alpin-Express base, spent zero time in the resort. Yes the piste footprint is surprisingly small, this despite a rare even in the Alps continuous run of 6,000 vertical. We covered everything in about 4 hours including a final...

MassLive is paywalled. Here's Stuart's Mad River story.

From our two night B&B in Agettes in the foothills south of Sion, we skied Ovrannaz Saturday, then upon departing Sunday drove an hour to Champery, the largest lodging base on the Swiss side of Portes du Soleil. There is a large parking lot, and a tram rising 2,000+ vertical to the skiing. For...

Many people believe that the more people are fooled by an April Fool’s joke, the better it is!

Niseko had one of those fore and aft facing gondolas like in James’ picture above.

10 total, 2 in Zermatt, one weather day off then 8 consecutitive: Saas Fee, Ovrannaz, 4 Portes du Soleil and 2 Grand Massif. 60K in the two Grand Massif days. Lower and sunny sectors all in spring mode today. I had to try that notorious Gere poma today. Fortunately the track was not rutted...

Today will be our last ski day. We will spend the last 4 days of the trip in Italy doing tourism. It's warming up gradually but Sunday will be in the 40's with no overnight freeze. The past week I've been skiing with a knee brace and the occasional discomfort has been manageable. The...

No question high snowfall places like Alta, Kirkwood and Wolf Creek are benefiting greatly from the current storm not only because they got more new snow but because they had more of a base left than other regional areas. I vaguely recall that Wolf Creek used to run deeper into April but...

The areas with early April closings do that because of remote location and dependence upon destination travelers who (in North America) stop skiing when it gets warm at home. Wolf Creek is an interesting case because it often gets early natural snow and can attract Front Range skiers when the...

Crested Butte and Telluride always close first weekend of April.

Is it a plug-in hybrid capable of 30-50 miles all electric? I thought BYD makes a lot of those.

Heavy is better considering what the subsurface must be.