 Poster: A snowHead
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kevducky, i just got a 7 day forecast saying snow on Thurs, Friday, and Saturday. Tel the missus it will be absolutely fine even if it doesn't snow. I'm going there on the 5th. Did you notice on the forecast for the day it said snow at altitude? Come over to Monetier, snows always better over there.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I know theh skiing in Montier was fabulous at new year, but it was so bloody cold in the afternoon!!- Do you think that we are fairweather skiers or what?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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kevducky, Wasn't it freezing? It'll be sunnier over there now though. Even my hardy hubby and sons finished earlier in the day than usual.
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Light snow here this morning. Kevducky you have nothing to worry about. I went up skiing yesterday and there is fantastic coverage everywhere, although there were too many people. Its much better than when you were here ealier in the year.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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How come Montgenevre has nowhere NEAR the snow Serre Che does, even though it's only a stone's throw away...? 
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Carled, Mongenevre is much more exposed to sunlight especially the northside. I drove through on thursday and there were massive amounts of snow in the village. Maybe the reports you have seen are not up to date.
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Carled, Chris is right about the sun exposure on certain parts of Montgenevre, but also the weather here is very localised depending on which direction it is coming from.
As an example a few weeks ago with some south westerly weather coming in there was about 40cms of fresh snow at Puy Saint Vincent, whereas Serre Chevalier only got about 10cms. You can see the back of Serre Chevalier from Puy, but still there was this big difference in fresh snow. The reason fo this is that with south westerly weather Serre Che is in the shadow of some really big (4000m) mountains whereas Puy isn't, but it would be with North West weather.
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Yeah, thinking about it that would make sense. I always forget until I'm back up there that ofter you can be looking DOWN onto the clouds that are bringing the weather in. In a weird experience a few years ago in Les Deux Alpes we were mucking about on the glacier buttons and flat runs in glorious sunny weather wondering why the run was getting ever emptier. We were eventually approached by an exasperated liftie who told us they were shutting down the higher lifts because of the weather conditions... Needless to say we were a bit flummoxed, especially as our French wasn't up to much and neither was his English. By way of pointing to the clouds down in the valleys and saying "Neige" over and over he eventually managed to get it through to us that the weather problems were lower down (but fast approaching higher up as we could see looking over toward the Alpe D'Huez direction).
We encountered the snow and cloud as we descended back down to the village... just a bit of a visibility problem in heavy cloud and snow! Still - it resulted in a good day in powder the next day...
So Serre Che has just been lucky this year in terms of direction, explaining why several resorts are bemoaning a lack of snow whilst Serre Che is having an exceptional year... or is it just a "normal" year in snow terms? I know that last year was a 30-ish year low, don't remind me... 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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carled, this is a strange thing that happens at Serre Che sometimes. Our first visit was a last minute booking at Easter when there was still about 3m of snow at the top. Tarentaise resorts that year had much poorer snow cover. But when it gets a bad year (as you know), it's a really bad one.
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Helen Beaumont, and we also get the Puy St Vincent weather (and the wind), whereas you sometimes miss out on the wind! Prevailing is SW around here though.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Anyone tell me up to date forecast for Serre Chev Please
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Sounds daft this but I never sent the message and as i am the only one at the computer it must have been a phantom message sender. I know that there is going to be big dollops of snow on friday with glorious sunshine on sunday 
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Yes we are going on saturday. Can't wait, we went at new year and there was great skiing then.
ps his is definately me sending it 
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Poster: A snowHead
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kevducky, I went up this morning and had to return by p.m as it was snowing too hard. The crowds have gone so the pistes will be quiet next week. Off-piste is very hard (solid) but there is a heavy dump on its way tonight and friday.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Excellent news Chris 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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That's brilliant. We arrive saturday night so hopefully it will stop for then as the wife hates mountain roads at the best of times.
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kevducky, In that case I apologise profusely!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Don't worry, I have found out who the Fantom Forum Forger is. My wife goes onto the site at work every 10 mins and one of her colleagues typed the message in as if to say- For &*^&* sake will you tell her 
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carled, we had to find an apartment for a few days before ours was ready, Claire in the tourist office sorted it out for us. Mel from Eurekaski looks after our apartment for us.
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Claire's really helpful... has the odd bad hair day when the damn english tourist snowhead known as carled gets a bit much for her... today was one of those days but I think we're friends again now...
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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carled, , I gave her a bad hair day too, my fax lost the important page-twice!!!
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carled, I was skiing above Villenerve between 9.30 and 12 and visibility was terrible because of snow. I don't know which webcam you were looking at but maybe it was at a lower position as the conditions there were better. Its has been snowing hard all night, approx 20 cms has fallen so far and its set to continue for 36 hours.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Yes I know I am being pathetic, but I am getting excited as we are off to Serr Chev tomorrow afternoon and it is snowing heavily in manchester to really get me in the mood.
What has the skiing been like today?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Thanks Graham
But tell the guides that the sun has to come out from Sunday. We have been having snowball fights in the park in Manchester, so a few drinks tonight and then we are off
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You know it makes sense.
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I've just had an email from Serre Che, it's seriously dumping, more snow in the village then they have seen in years, and the tour op coaches are being pulled out by tractors.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Helen Beaumont, marginally better here - there is movement in the town! heavy slush on main road and pavements all but impassable!
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Poster: A snowHead
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easiski, looks like the slopes will be good when this all stops though. I just hope we manage to get there. Goodness knows what car we'll end up with at the airport.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Helen, insist on snow tyres. I've never seen snow like this.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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chris, as we're hiring from Swiss side at Geneva, they all have winter tyres , I've pre-booked ther snow chains so lets hope they have them
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Morning all you Serre Che types... I'm looking in awe at these snowfalls... so all that snow that didn't fall last season has come home with a vengeance, it would appear! Can you tell the pisteurs to make some nice big piles of it to top up the slopes with when we're there! OK, it's only 5 weeks 'til we arrive now, but with my luck with snow, we're about to see the biggest heatwave in years hit and you'll be white-water rafting down the Cucumelle...
I think that when all this settles down and compacts a bit, we'll be looking at something like 5 times the snow depth there was at this time last year... Looks like I may get back to play on the Echaillon sector after all!
You lot over there take it easy and be careful!
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The Metcheck web site shows warm weather arriving in Serre Chevalier next week.
According to their 7 day forecast the whole mountain will be above freezing with expected temperatures of 6 and 8 degrees next Mon/tue.
Anyone know of a more optimistic forecast. At least tell me that it will be back to normal by 19th March.
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Cymru am Byth, relax. Last year there was 50cm top and 20cm bottom in late Jan. Between then and when we went on March 20th, it didn't snow appreciably at all... just a few mini-falls a few times. It was also unseasonably warm for ages too. By the time we arrived, the depths were 45cm top and 10 cm bottom. It was crap. This year it's nearly 3m on top and one and a half at the bottom. Even if it was 20 deg C for the next 4 weeks, they'll lose less than half of what they have now and, although it's going to start getting warmer from now on, what do you expect from late March/early April skiing? You occasionally get a dump of snow (ok, you OFTEN get a dump of snow) in late March/April and it's fresh for a few days. However, the whole point of Spring skiing is the warmer temps and the longer light so you cannot expect the snow to be crisp, it just doesn't happen.
They'll be skiing on this (via snowmobiles after the lifts shut) until June this year. They haven't had theis much snow in years and years. Also there'll be further dumps between now and then, so you have nothing to worry about. Of course, your week there won't be as good as when we arrive on April 9th... 
Check the GFS 9-day for an indication - as you say... warm temps, but it's showing it going colder again towards the end. (Interesting set up for the UK in that last chart on Fri 17th!) http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/avnpanel1.html
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carled, My concern is not about the existence of snow, more the quality. If the temperatures remain high then I can expect some sort of porridge, and if they dip after the warm snap then sheet ice.
Of course some new snow over the hard will do nicely.
I hear that 9th April they're performing their annual lift service, so only the drags will be open. 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Cymru am Byth, Porridge can be fun and it is certainly good for honing the carving technique
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FAQ
. Spent most of the day skiing the trees above Villeneuve/L'Aravet (or something like that). Powder more than knee deep in places and boot deep pretty much everywhere 
