St.Luc / Chandolin, Switz., Apr. 4, 2022

[jamesdeluxe]

The date was in the description on the YouTube site itself:

Candide Thovex - Pretty tight​

2,626,726 views Feb 3, 2022 Candide skiing some canyons in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.​

I'm reasonably sure that ^^ is the upload date to youtube, not when it was shot.

Even though everyone knows about the direct-south orientation at Crans-Montana, the people on Alpinforum have posted some convincing TRs of anecdotal conditions over the years. Here's a tasting menu:
07/03/16: summer skiing
04/13/17: winter up top/spring below
03/16/18: full coverage in mid-March
03/03/19: mid-winter
02/29/20: powder day
05/15/21: obviously outlier conditions for mid-May but regardless

I skied seven different areas during my 2017 Valais visit and even though my lodging was on the Crans-Montana access road, I didn't go there -- just because I wanted to check out the less resort-y joints in the region. Regardless, it looks like an impressive place if timed correctly. They've been threatening to connect it with nearby Anzère; however, I don't believe it's going to happen in the short/medium term.

This poster gave a list of his favorite trails, which I'll consult whenever I eventually ski there.

 

[ChrisC]

I'm reasonably sure that ^^ is the upload date to youtube, not when it was shot.

Even though everyone knows about the direct-south orientation at Crans-Montana, the people on Alpinforum have posted some convincing TRs of anecdotal conditions over the years. Here's a tasting menu:
07/03/16: summer skiing
04/13/17: winter up top/spring below
03/16/18: full coverage in mid-March
03/03/19: mid-winter
02/29/20: powder day
05/15/21: obviously outlier conditions for mid-May but regardless

I skied seven different areas during my 2017 Valais visit and even though my lodging was on the Crans-Montana access road, I didn't go there -- just because I wanted to check out the less resort-y joints in the region. Regardless, it looks like an impressive place if timed correctly. They've been threatening to connect it with nearby Anzère; however, I don't believe it's going to happen in the short/medium term.

This poster gave a list of his favorite trails, which I'll consult whenever I eventually ski there.

Yes, that was the upload date. Thought it was part of the free-form field. I assume Candide skied Switzerland/Crans-Montana when all the French resorts were closed in 2020/21. Looks like the end of the season.

Most south-facing resorts can ski well from late December to mid-February. A lot of the Crans-Montana photos are up high on the glacier - looks good. I would check it out - depending on the recent weather.

I have had great-to-decent experiences at south-facing Alps resorts:

• Brevent/Flegere - new snow in late December/early January kept things soft and powdery
• St Anton - lots of new snow and cold temps in late January. The top 2/3 stayed soft and powdery with cold temps between storms.
• Laax/Flims - lots of new snow that covered everything down low.
• Disentis - was starting to transition on lower 2/3 in early March. Might be iffy late-season except for top bowls.
• Sedrun - skied well on its high south faces after new snow
• Corviglia/St. Moritz - off-piste was shot in early March, but more due to warm temps.

The North American Pacific NW has quite a few mostly south-facing resorts that ski well during the core, cloudy/stormy part of the season:

• Jackson Hole
• Mt Hood Meadows
• Timberline Lodge
• Stevens Pass - backside
• Alpental
• Whitefish
• Montana Snow Bowl
• Big White, BC
• Sun Peaks, BC
• Lake Louise, AB

You cannot really develop a mostly south-facing resort in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Insightful comments by ChrisC above.

For most of that NW list above I modified the zrankings snow algorithm to prevent a negative exposure score for areas with chronic NW midwinter cloudiness.

There are a handful on that list that I do not consider chronically cloudy. Lake Louise is one, but I modify its score (and Sunshine's) the same way due to the overall coldest climate of western destination resorts. Nonetheless I have seen Goat's Eye and much of Lake Louise's frontside unpleasantly refrozen during a few of my late February visits.

I don't consider Jackson chronically cloudy either. However, its microclimate is an inversion machine midwinter, maintaining consistently cold temperatures on the lower mountain. When the inversions break up mid to late February, the exposure abruptly becomes a liability. I allow the exposure negative score in Jackson's case, but it still ranks a very respectable 29th among North American ski resorts due to decent altitude and high snowfall. That's not too different from Copper Mt.'s 25th rank with nearly opposite characteristics (modest snowfall but superb preservation).

I also don't make an adjustment for Montana Snowbowl. Yes my two visits (Feb. 4 and Mar. 3) were in blazing sun and widespread spring conditions, but the locals there remark about "the evil orb," strongly implying that they would like to see more cloudiness than they actually get. I think it's likely that the NW cloudiness often extends to the Bitterroot Mountains along the Idaho/Montana border (Lookout, Lost Trail), but not that far beyond.

I don't know if Sun Peaks is chronically cloudy but I make the adjustment there anyway because its cold weather is not too far off Banff's.

My observation on the south facing Alps resorts on my January trips is that the sun is enough to mess up the off piste after a few days but that grooming maintains a nice surface on piste. Corviglia and Saalbach were the best examples of that. At Sedrun and in the Arlberg I had the same experiences as ChrisC: the sun exposed snow was still fresh enough to be good even off piste. Flims-Laax was the opposite: snow was good up high but lower pistes were frozen granular and off piste was out of the question.

Most south-facing resorts can ski well from late December to mid-February

Yes. In many cases even a tilt to SW or SE is enough to preserve winter snow, as I have seen often on Jackson's Lower Faces. And sometimes east or west facing terrain stays shaded all day by midwinter sun angle and towering mountains to the south (Alagna, Broken Arrow at Palisades).

 

[jamesdeluxe]

As I've mentioned before, the Euros (especially German speakers) are a very demanding bunch and have high expectations for their ski experiences, ones that most American skiers wouldn't even mention. Take a look at this translation of the Feb 29, 2020 Crans-Montana report mentioned above.

 

[ChrisC]

As I've mentioned before, the Euros (especially German speakers) are a very demanding bunch and have high expectations for their ski experiences, ones that most American skiers wouldn't even mention. Take a look at this translation of the Feb 29, 2020 Crans-Montana report mentioned above.

Some quotes

Like the comparison to ex-Communist ski mountains:

Aminona is otherwise a "dead end". There are no (more) gondolas / chairlifts from the village.
At the bus stop you will find dilapidated buildings, the former station and the remains of the supports look like in neglected ski areas in the east

And the reaction to a below $90 US lift ticket:
In the US, we have lots of damaged HS lift seat cushions.

I took the bus to Barzettes and paid 89 francs (!) for a day pass. This seems to me to be one of the absolute premium ski areas in the Alps! Let's see how much premium is in here.

Unfortunately, the Kandahar is bad for driving, the snowcat tracks are prepared with an offset. Premium slope at a premium price

In the elevator I found that the elevator is absolutely run down. Practically all seat cushions are in a desolate condition. Haven't seen it in any ski area yet, maybe it's because you pay 89 francs? That's not enough for a minimum standard. I don't know how safe things are either. Maybe I'm too petty, but it's really not premium.

- too expensive (compared to e.g. 4 Vallées), more precisely, value for money is not right!
- unsympathetic (Premium Experience babble and first line)
- run down (former Aminona lift station, Polster chair lifts and general condition, concrete remains in the area of the Violettes Express gondola, as far as I remember correctly)
- poor slope maintenance, either icy or prepared with offset

Another happy German:

I've been consciously avoiding Alpinforum this season to sidestep the inevitable FOMO from not being able to fly over there; however, I finally relented to check out this report from Grindelwald three weeks ago (I ran it through Google Translate, which is far from perfect but better than nothing) with discussion toward the bottom about the new Eiger Express 3S tram, which takes you 4,500 vertical feet uphill in one shot. As always, it's fascinating to see how, from a U.S. standpoint, spoiled and/or entitled Europeans (especially German-speaking ones!) are about ski-area infrastructure.

When I was in Grindelwald for the last time in 2014, I swore to myself on the awfully long ride in the junk gondola on the Mannlichen that I would not come back here until the new V-Cableway was up and running.

The smoothness of the track is a bit disappointing compared to the 3S in Zermatt.

The only European area that I thought was a bit sad and need to remove some old lift towers: Cervinia. It's the land of abandoned cable cars and ski lifts.

2000

 

[Tony Crocker]

I guess I was too busy lapping up the powder to notice anything unusual about Cervinia's infrastructure in 2013 and 2018. The lifts were mostly modern and no surface lifts that I recall. And definitely no abandoned terrain like Aminona.

I think the only place I've said I won't go back until a lift is upgraded is Big Sky's Lone Peak tram. Fortunately that project is supposed to be done by 2025. The Bellecote gondola at La Plagne was a long and slow antique but surprisingly it did not have a lift line despite the tons of skier traffic around La Plagne's lodging bases.