The 2015 skiing thread

[Gruffy]

We arrived in Chamonix last night, fearing the worst. Despite all the news about the lack of snow the season opened today and I spent the morning getting some nice big powder turns in off the top. Soft and lovely until the mid-station.





Don't be put off by the melodramatic media. There is great skiing to be had.

[Cheib]

This was the top of Verbier today apparently

http://instagram.com/p/w09yHwIQTy/

There is snow up top in the high resorts but below 2000m there is fk all. It's bizarrely warm...snowed in Verbier on Wed next day it was raining all the way up the mountain with freezing point up at 3000m.

I get to Verbier tomorrow. Family skiing holiday and my kids are very young so we'll have a good time but as there is enough open for us.

Blue skies forecast for all next week...lord knows what New Year week will be like. Busiest week of the year and tiny amount of terrain open.

[Nobby Diesel]

Gruffly,
Is this up at Argentiere?

[Gruffy]

Yes, off the back of Grands Montets.

[Nobby Diesel]

Gruffly,

How are things looking up there?
I'm over on the last weekend in Jan and anxiety is building. I know it's a long way off, but normally a really solid base would be established. Is it skiable back to Argentiere ?

[Gruffy]

I'm still riding untracked snow off the top. The home run isn't really skiable all the way yet but we're forecast half a metre of snow this weekend and temps low enough to run snow cannons so I think you can relax a bit. I think we could still do with an extra half a metre to cover the rocks off-piste but if you're on the pistes or on rental/rock skis then you'll be fine.

[Cheib]

Piste conditions in Verbier above the mid station are great....all the main pistes are open. They opened one of the main itineraries for a couple of days but shut it again. Judging by the amount of instructors here from other resorts things elsewhere are awful.

In sobering news an Italian girl was killed a couple of days ago at the bottom of what is the most innocuous blue run in the resortt. Caught her neck on a boundary rope by a lift station.

[Nobby Diesel]

Gruffy said:

I'm still riding untracked snow off the top. The home run isn't really skiable all the way yet but we're forecast half a metre of snow this weekend and temps low enough to run snow cannons so I think you can relax a bit. I think we could still do with an extra half a metre to cover the rocks off-piste but if you're on the pistes or on rental/rock skis then you'll be fine.

Thanks Gruffy.
Are you there for the season again this year? If so, might check in with you again before we arrive. Would be great to get a first hand account of what's going on.

[Gruffy]

Not this year, sadly. I'm here until the 5th and I'll be popping back from time to time. I'm renting the apartment out the rest of the time.

We woke up to 5cm of unexpected fresh in the valley. Probably not much more up top but the temperatures have dropped sharply and we have a big storm forecast tonight and tomorrow.

Edited by Gruffy on Friday 26th December 12:14