Banner on an absolute scale, no better than average so far: https://www.snowjapan.com/japan-daily-snow-weather-reports/Niseko-Now/observed-snowfall-analysis
Season Plans: 2022-23
- Thread starter Tony Crocker
- Start date
ChrisC
Well-known member
Guess I just have been looking at some local reports on Facebook:
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Rusutsu Snow Report from the eyes
11cm recorded this morning
Neither Isola nor East No. 2 gondola will be running today
Conditions at 8.15 am
Bright with snow showers
-6.7 C
Min. temperature in the last 24 hours : - 9.5 C
Accumulated snow for the 2022 / 23 season: 694 cm
ChrisC
Well-known member
I skied 3 Vallees (based in Meribel-Mottaret), Val d'Isere/Tignes, and La Grave/Les2Alpes/Serre Chevalier in the winter of 2006 around late Feb/Early March. The snow bases were not that great - mostly around 100-160 inches - but with 15-30cm of new snow.
The Southern Haute Alpes skied pretty well - even La Grave in its couloirs. Meribel/Mt. Vallon and Val Thorens still had a lot of rocks, but Les Menuires/La Masse/Les Belleville and parts of Meribel/Courchevel that were more meadows/less rocky skied very well. Val d'Isere skied better than Tignes since some of its off-piste zones are not very rocky.
I would be happy to return to any of the above - especially Haute Alpes since I have not skied Alpe d'Huez and limited parts of the other 2 resorts.
You could also add Saas Fee to the list since there is very, very limited off-piste skiing due to incredible glaciers.
Saas Fee:
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Hi from Paris. The logistics with 6 are too hard to change so our first few weeks are going to be locked in. When we are a group of three in late Jan/very early February and are due to be in Chamonix I’m open to changing plans.
I still don’t know whether Emily’s mate Lily will take to snow based activities yet so part of the appeal with Cham is the ability to do easy day trips to Aosta, Geneva, Annecy etc for the girls while I find something to ski on.
Those never evers in my group are about to be snowed on first the very first time and I can’t wait for that moment.
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
I forgot that Sbooker is going to be there for a solid month. Similar to q, it must be nice to have monstrous vacations like that!
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jamesdeluxe
Administrator
Post pix!
Briancon is the crossroads town between Serre Chevalier and Montgenevre. You can get to places like Turin/Aosta and Grenoble very easily. And as noted in my other post today, it's about 5 hours from Nice/Monaco.
I think Chamonix is a very bad idea based upon all we have heard from Fraser. It would have taken the rain up to 2,500 meters. The top lift at Grands Montets is still down, so there is no lift service at any of its pisted ski areas above 2,700. Vallee Blanche is probably not skiable. On piste skiing is somewhat limited and so may get trashed every day by noon like ChrisC said in the other thread.
I hope you have not paid for lodging there or can get out of it. You shouldn't be paying for lodging anywhere yet after you are done with Tignes/Les Arcs. Neither James nor I have ever had problems finding lodging on short notice in late January. Since it's clear flexibility will be important, hopefully sbooker has reserved a rental car for the latter part of his trip.
I’ve not paid for Chamonix lodging and can cancel until two days prior. I don’t have a car booked but can get one from Geneva or Grenoble. We fly out of Milan (because the girls wanted the last day in Italy).
It is important to remember I don’t get to ski often so being on snow pretty much anywhere and regardless of quality is satisfactory to me. Skiing powder is a (big) bonus.
This really makes it a no-brainer to head south to Milky Way/Serre Chevalier, etc. after Kylie and the boys go home. You might incur a drop charge for the car, renting from Grenoble and dropping in Milan, but you could always return the car to Grenoble, then take the train to Milan. About 3/4 of the Milky Way complex is in Italy; only Montgenevre is in France.
Yes, but it is moderately likely you'll be limited to on-piste, and Chamonix is not a great choice in that scenario.
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ChrisC
Well-known member
Give me the micro brews and Grateful Dead cover band at the Mangy Moose over techno music any day. But I’m sure we’ll check it out. (I stick to a ‘no beers before 5pm’ rule so I won’t be doing much table dancing).
I have been to one too many Telluride summer festivals: world-famous BlueGrass (the town gets locked down except for residents/campers) and Blues and Brews. Racing to get a tarp placement at 8 am gate opening - followed by 8 hours of a lot of OK bands - plus some late night after performances, I am a little over the entire scene. My 20-minute Jam Band tolerance is gone - no matter how many great microbrews at Blues and Brews can give away.
Like the Burning Man scene with art, energy, techno and 'radical self-expression'.....but even that festival is over-run with tech bros, Hollywood, etc. where it's now very expensive and less fun. Stopped going.
My camp (Giraffe) and art car from the early 2000s: (nice photo quality)
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ChrisC
Well-known member
Verify drop charges in a foreign country. Hertz wanted to charge me $5k for a Switzerland vs. Italy change during the start of the COVID pandemic. It's easy to change in the same country - I switched Milan airports for $25. Not sure about changing countries. But Switzerland is a little non-integrated economically and politically with Europe outside of the Schengen immigration zone.
Just saw that if I ski the Southern Alps or Tarentaise Valley resorts, my closest resort on the way is the Milky Way - about 2.5 hrs from Milan Malpensa. Serre Chevalier/Briancon is similar. It would just be a half day due to morning arrival. (Lift tickets might be in the $40s USD?!)
I am more apt to ski Sestriere due to the Olympic heritage, steeper terrain, and some nice reviews. Will need to go get my Where to Ski Guide Italy out and read up (Amazon US as well). The Milky Way was perhaps one of the last places I ever wanted to ski in Europe....
The Italian Monterosa areas are still in a giant snow donut hole and will get almost nothing from the coming storms.
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Some useful links above. It seems that Sestriere is the optimal bed base in the Milky Way.
Due to logistics, I'm holding that off as an add-on to a return to Zermatt. I thought that was going to be last spring but no such luck.
ChrisC
Well-known member
You can ski Saas Fee anytime since almost 60%+ of the runs are on glaciers. And there truly is no off-piste....just ski touring dodging crevasses...forget that!
I might make the case that Saas Fee is the most charming ski village in the Alps - the glaciers are in your face with a 2000m vertical relief from town, very historic buildings/inns, bigger than one would think and no cars! Stay at least one night - perhaps two if skiing at another Saas resort.
I meant driving/access logistics. That's an out-of-the-way corner of the Alps so I'm not going to Saas Fee unless it's worthwhile skiing Zermatt (and specifically Hohtalli) on the same trip.
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
Like many North Americans, the worst low visibility I'd ever encountered was Grand Targhee, but at least you have trees on the lower 2/3 there. Nothing prepared me for trying to ski in a major storm at a completely above-treeline ski area in the Alps, gah. I'm surprised that no one has developed night-vision ski goggles for that very purpose.
ChrisC
Well-known member
I got used to low visibility in the Washington/NW Cascades. Many days at Alpental, Crystal, Stevens, Baker, and Whistler where you cannot see more than a few feet, but you have the big beautiful pines for reference. I finally realized why Whistler has the neon piste markers in the Alpine zones.
Yeah - my brother's first ski trip there in 2018, we had our first snowy day at Zermatt. The Hohtalli tram was out of the storm in the AM, and we were two of maybe 20 people in that huge zone since it appeared from town that everything was stormy in the alpine. No one made the effort to get up. By the PM the storm really moved in, and it was skiing by braille. Complete vertigo. My brother was like "Holy s--t! You cannot see. There really is no storm-day skiing in the Alps..." So I did the next best thing - late lunch at Chez Vrony. Sometimes you admit defeat and retreat to good food/cozy hut/schnapps!
However, I really did not learn storm day strategies until I skied St. Anton with guides for 2 days during January/February 2019. Get the ski resort app, and pull up the real-time webcams. Guides all did that. Storms are not uniform. There will always be one sector that might have skiable visibility. Obviously, you are not going to traverse an hour across the Arlberg and expect storm weather to stay the same, but 15-20 minutes from Rendl to Stuben could make a world of difference. Or St. Anton to eastern Zurs. So you basically hunt for visibility, snow, low winds, etc. Or ski the tree runs - wherever they may be.
This is also why I prefer the Euro megaplexes over the small local hills. You might have more powder competition, but you can always find sectors with good snow, exposure, and/or visibility at the big places. Meanwhile, a 2-3 lift area could all suffer uniformly from sun exposure, wind, and visibility and be a total loss.
Reason: Why look at webcams for storm breaks. And perhaps why bigger is better in Euroland.
Zermatt, Hohtalli Zone, February 1, 2019. Your own 3000 vertical ft sector and private tram.
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This was a lesson I learned last spring. On my last day at Club Med (the one without a guide) I floundered around Val Thorens but heard later at dinner that visibility in Courchevel was OK.
Phillipe was intermittently on his radio. Speaking in French but obviously checking conditions with someone.
He did say at the start of the lesson that he had been speaking with ski patrol earlier in the morning. I guess that is normal?
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
I'd amend that to "there really is no storm-day skiing in above-treeline terrain in the Alps."
I know there's a perception of me skiing primarily "small locals" areas in the Alps but I've also been to the Arlberg three times, Portes du Soleil twice, and once each to almost megaplexes (but very big by U.S. standards) Aletsch Arena, St. Moritz, Arosa/Lenzerheide, and Jungfrau in Switzerland, Val d'Allos, La Clusaz, Megève, and Espace Diamant in France, along with Ischgl and Montafon Silvretta in Austria. I'm a fan of big places as long as it's not a peak period.
I understand your basic point about the variety of terrain/exposures/wind and why you gravitate toward the high-altitude megas in general; however, I've assembled a decent record of successful storm days at the smaller and medium-sized joints -- more often than not at lower elevations with plenty of trees and zero competition.
ChrisC
Well-known member
Agree. My first day in St. Anton was full storm/white out. However, the lifts coming out of the villages all the way to Stuben mostly have tree-defined skiing. Things turned out better than expected.
I know you get around to many places. Part of the reason I don't ski in the smaller areas is that it's difficult to find much information about them. You have to dig. Both about where to ski and stay. The US press just focuses on the large, name-brand resorts - same as in the US almost (Whitefish anyone?) while the British media/tour companies seem to focus on where they can book you a package.
Also, I have no Alps-favored language skills. (I can converse a little with the Italians in Spanish). There is a comfort level at larger places since I will inevitably find an English speaker. Although German-speaking Europe generally has some English skills since it's the language of business and the EU. (The smaller the country, the higher the incidence of English language skills. As a Finnish coworker said - I need to speak to more than 8 million people). Sometimes the younger the individual, the more likelihood of English - Internet/Pop Culture.)
I have done some smaller places: La Grave, Andermatt Gemsstock, Les Contamines, Warth., most Chamonix valley resorts are smaller (Les Houches, Le Tour/Balme, etc). And agree you can have successful powder days at almost any Euro resort. And at any Megaplex - you are generally focusing on a few key sectors.