We're gonna ski like it's 1999.
First Time Europe: Best Practices
- Thread starter jnelly
- Start date
Which dates are you there? Arriving in GVA, right?
Today's update from Weather to Ski:
Snow cover is very thin across some southern parts of the Alps, notably in the southern French Alps and southwestern Italian Alps, where it looks more like mid-April than late February. The situation is better elsewhere though, with generally near normal snow cover across the northern half of the Alps.
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Excellent, I land that morning at 8:30/will be skiing by noon. Don't forget to post reports!
That was a huge year in the Alps, 150+% across most of the northern Alps including several destructive avalanches. 1999 was also memorable in North America, with 10 areas having record high snowfall, topped by Mt. Baker's world record 1,096 inches November - April.
jnelly
Member
I know there’s a general sentiment that there will be plenty of places to stay last minute now that it’s moving into off peak. That said, there is NOTHING available in Morzine / Les Gets and most of Grand Massif area (that doesn’t have a bunk bed and under rich guy cost) . I’m eyeing this for the second leg of the trip but Orbitz and Booking.com is a comedy show with “sold out” tags at entire regions.
What am I missing?
What am I missing?
I was referring above to the Prince song, about enjoying yourself one last time as the apocalypse approaches (as @jnelly mentioned, the possibility of being vaporized in the upcoming days/weeks). Better while skiing in the Alps than here in the NYC region, which would certainly be a prime target.
This week is not off peak, particularly since Mardi Gras is today. There are a fair number of places in Europe that have a school holiday during Mardi Gras week.
I believe he was talking about the second half of next week.
Fraser mentioned back-channel that it’s probably a combination of:
- There is so much pent-up demand and short breaks are particularly popular this winter following the pandemic.
- Early March is the highest season for short breaks in the Alps in any year.
- Many countries/regions are in in their main holiday week with hotels therefore preferring to stick to Saturday to Saturday.
- The snow is vastly better on the northern side of the Alps, which further increases demand.
I thought that the option suggested in my FTO e-mail -- staying in a B&B a short drive from the Portes du Soleil -- was pretty solid.
It may not interest you people from the US but Singapore Air no longer requires a covid test for transit. I'm about 10 days from departure and my destination of France no longer requires a negative test for arrival. That saves some minor cost and hassles. I'm hoping Australia removes the requirement for a negative test for arrivals between now and the end of March.
All of the Alps countries have done away with enforced negative tests for arrivals. I wonder which countries other than the US, Canada, and Australia are still requiring them?
Singapore does (although not for transit). New Zealand does - along with 14 days quarantine.
It's covid theatre really.
EMSC
Well-known member
Recall I never said it didn't snow in the Alps.Moving forward, @EMSC should keep in mind that (similar to Colorado) April is the best month for Alps destination visits with big groups!
I still maintain that a majority of snow in the alps comes in exactly this type of storm: humongous. With only some snowfall outside of the huge dumps. eg more Sierra like than Colo or BC like, making pre-booked skiing very much a crap shoot at best.
Review of Western regional standard deviations as percent of season snowfalls:
Northern and Central Colorado 18-25%, Beaver Creek and Winter Park under 20%, A-Basin highest
Canadian Rockies and Interior B.C. 18-25%, Okanagan and Revelstoke/Rogers Pass under 20%, Banff areas highest.
US Northern Rockies 18-26%, Big Sky, Brundage, Targhee under 20%, interior NW areas are the highest.
Southern and Western Colorado 21-29%, Aspen, Monarch, Telluride lower, Crested Butte, Wolf Creek, Taos higher
Utah 24-30%, lowest in the Cottonwoods
US Pacific Northwest 26-30% but 23% at Whistler
California 36-43%, lowest NW of Tahoe, SoCal is 51%
In the Northeast Vermont and Quebec are 20-25%, NY 25-30%, NH and Maine 30-35%
The Alps data I got from Fraser in 2014 is not as comprehensive, but the overall average standard deviation was 31%.
The French Tarantaise and the high snow regions Andermatt and NW Tyrol/Vorarlberg are in the 25-30% range.
In general the low altitudes are over 30%, likely due to rain incidence increasing snow volatility.
Isola 2000 is 40%. I think that’s a good assumption for Southern Alps areas completely blocked out from northern or western storms. This would not be true for borderline areas like the Aosta region and Serre Chevalier.
So overall are the Alps Colorado average with California volatility? Not quite, more like PNW volatility. But of course the average snowfall in the PNW is like the very highest Warth Schrocken in the Alps.
Southern Hemisphere volatility is on another level. Scattered data from Oz/NZ looks like about 35%. Las Lenas is 50% and Portillo 56%.
EMSC
Well-known member
Interesting data, though I note it is annual in nature for this analysis. Probably much harder to determine within season volatility which is one of my assumptions based mostly on watching from afar. That is the part I think might be Sierra like. Big dumps then not much, big dump then not much, etc....
This reminded me of my inaugural European travel experience. During the 1986 summer break after a semester at the University of Nice, I finagled a student loophole to purchase a one-month Interrail pass so I could visit classmates in their home countries. As noted in the current intro video, Interrail is available to Europeans and UKers younger than 26, and back then was priced at approx. half of a Eurail pass.
No smartphones in the mid-80s so you entered the itinerary by hand into the booklet ("do not use a pencil!") and got it stamped. I don't recall reservation requirements or surcharges for any trains except the French TGV so it was easy to hop on and off without excessive planning. If you didn't know anyone in a specific city, the time-honored move was to take an overnight train to avoid paying for lodging.
I got a ride from Nice to Rome and activated the pass there:
1. Rome to Florence
2. Florence to Nice
3. Nice to Regensburg (Bavaria)
4. Regensburg to Copenhagen
5. Copenhagen to Düsseldorf
6. Düsseldorf to Brussels
7. Brussels to Hamburg
8. Hamburg to West Berlin
9. I got a ride from Berlin to Regensburg
10. Regensburg to Graz, Austria
11. Graz back to Nice to pick up my belongings
One last photo op in Nice (cosplaying with a prop cigarette):
A tearful goodbye with my GF and a roommate:
12. Nice to Milan
13. Milan to Brussels
At Brussels Airport after more than 5,000 train miles, where I took lovely People Express to Newark and onward to Denver/Boulder:
That's how it was done.
