Alps & Pyrenees Snow Thread 2015/16

[johnholmes]

The station area where trains go up to the Jungraujoch or back down to Wengen or Grindelwald, height 6700ft

http://www.bahnhof-scheidegg.ch/default.asp?itemid=107〈=e

Certainly more snow falling further west in the Arlberg region. Picture from Ober Lech towards the main village.That particular fodder station is famous for its Fondue night parties and the only way back to the village is the slide down in a black bin liner. Makes for a good laugh after a few glogs !

 C

 

71.jpg

 

done that above Kichberg MANY years ago with the main railway line at the bottom!

[Ravelin]

I can see from the Webcams at St.Anton that they have several of the snow cannons going.

Forecast looking good at the moment for another decent fall of snow across the Alps later in the week. The benefit this time, if it happens, is that the cold air is already in place so it should be snow falling from the start.

Edited November 21, 2015 by Ravelin

[ItNeverSnowsInWindsor]

Great to see the ski season getting ready this weekend with new snow. Even in Windsor, Berkshire it managed to sleet! Looking good for the rest of November for more snowfalls in the Alps with the Lows digging into Europe.

[carinthian]

Men at work clearing the railway after Wengens first real snowfall of the season. Good job that's not in the UK, they would be on triple pay on a Sunday !

 

C

 

[J10]

Men at work clearing the railway after Wengens first real snowfall of the season. Good job that's not in the UK, they would be on triple pay on a Sunday !

 

C

 

68.jpg

 

At least it is not the wrong type of snow.

 

Great to see the snow across the Alps this weekend.

[carinthian]

At least it is not the wrong type of snow.

 

Great to see the snow across the Alps this weekend.

Yep Julian, been up early getting a feel of the stuff again. Just cannot beat -8c and snow flurries. Busy this morning with all the snow making guns firing away. I think we will remain in the colder side of the flow for most of this week, particularly in the Eastern Alpine Regions. As you say its great to see most resorts getting a covering.  Should be in a better position this time next week, hopefully.

 

c

[johnholmes]

Men at work clearing the railway after Wengens first real snowfall of the season. Good job that's not in the UK, they would be on triple pay on a Sunday !

 

C

 

68.jpg

 

yes a daily job clearing the points on all sections of the Jungfrau area rail network. You need to look out for the two snow blowing beasts they kleep in the sheds at Kleinne. 15cm on the Lauberhorn area and 10cm in the village this morning. With the upper flow proedicted to be a westerly turning NW'ly at times at least there should be no major thaw above about 5000ft for most of the Alps.

 

53 days to the start of the Lauberhorn races and the finish for all 3 disciplines looks almost complete. Shame there is no web cam of the 'mini village' they build below the Hunchkpopf jump.

 

some may like to turn on the video on the right hand side of the link below, Swiss advert but some good ski shots and something I have never seen before (IF it is real) is the sight of the display team flying with the Swiss National through the Jungfrau region!

http://www.lauberhorn.ch/en/Livecam

Edited November 22, 2015 by johnholmes

[knocker]

Today in the Alps...

It is bitterly cold and there is lots of new snow across the north-western half of the Alps, but not so much in the south, and in some places no new snow at all. Today, the heaviest snow showers are concentrated across the northern Swiss Alps, as well as the far west of Austria.

 

http://www.weathertoski.co.uk/weather-snow/

[Norrona2015]

Very encouraging weather over the last few days. First boarding trip of the season planned in just over a fortnights time, Avoriaz, cannot wait!!

[carinthian]

Yep Julian, been up early getting a feel of the stuff again. Just cannot beat -8c and snow flurries. Busy this morning with all the snow making guns firing away. I think we will remain in the colder side of the flow for most of this week, particularly in the Eastern Alpine Regions. As you say its great to see most resorts getting a covering.  Should be in a better position this time next week, hopefully.

 

c

 

Snow guns blazing away this evening.

 

C

[carinthian]

A great picture last night of all the snow guns in full blast last night. Temp at time -10c at base station. That picture is the north side runs of the mountain that links Katschberg to St Margaretten village in The Lungau.

The Aineck is a big mountain and the run you see lit up on the far right is one of the best and longest in Austria at 7km . A massive investment in snow making gear which should now help to ensure the season starts on time the Saturday.

C

[jackpunch]

Off to Chamonix in a couple of weeks. I've just had a look at the forecast on accuweather, and they are predicting a serious warm up. Temps up to 10 or 11. Any signs that this is valid or is the cold looking set?

[Blessed Weather]

^ Fantastic webcam shot Carinthian. That's already a front-runner for the 'Webcam Shot of the Season' award!

 

It was great to see wide-spread snow across the Alps over the weekend. It doesn't appear as if amounts were as much as was forecast, with the following figures being reported for 'lower' pistes. The only doubt in my head is whether these are subsequent depths of pisted slopes, rather than the pre-pisted 'natural' depth of the snow that fell??

 

France: Tignes 20cm, Val Thoren 50cm, Avoriaz 30cm.

Italy: Courmayeur 20cm, Bormio 10cm, Val Gardena 10cm.

Switzerland: Zermatt 20cm, Davos 10cm, Gstaad 20cm.

Austria: Hintertux 30cm, Ischgl 10cm, St Anton 10cm.

Andorra: Pas de la Casa 5cm.

 

Anyway, another 12 hours+ of snowfall set to hit the Alps this coming Wednesday, with forecasts of 20 - 30cm quite typical for Western Alps, but falling to 5 - 10cm further East. GFS charts:

 

850 hPa Wed 25th Nov 03.00 6 hour precip

 

Zooming in:

 

Precip 03.00 Freezing Level

 

Precip 15.00 Freezing Level

[Blessed Weather]

Off to Chamonix in a couple of weeks. I've just had a look at the forecast on accuweather, and they are predicting a serious warm up. Temps up to 10 or 11. Any signs that this is valid or is the cold looking set?

 

Hi jackpunch. I think we can all understand you looking anxiously at what current models are suggesting for two weeks time! But that's a long way off in forecasting terms, so plenty of time for things to change. So whilst the GFS model is currently forecasting High Pressure to move into Europe next week and daytime temps to probably hit the figures suggested by Accuweather, this will be down in the resort. For higher altitudes and for shaded North facing slopes, temps will be lower and hopefully pistes won't be too badly affected. Also, night-time temps are forecast to fall well below freezing every night - so piste bashers will be able to 'make good' slopes that have gone soft by day. (Resorts may even be able to use snow cannons at night too).

 

So with today's GFS forecast saying more snow this Weds and also this coming weekend, I'm hopeful pistes will be in good shape at the start of next week and able to withstand the freeze/thaw conditions that look likely to arrive thereafter (hopefully for a very short period!). And up on the high pistes of Chamonix I'm sure you won't have a problem finding good skiing/boarding.

[jackpunch]

Thank you kindly

[J10]

Very encouraging weather over the last few days. First boarding trip of the season planned in just over a fortnights time, Avoriaz, cannot wait!!

 

The webcams there look a fair bit better than a few days ago.

 

http://www.avoriaz.com/en/discovering/interactive-tour/pictures-videos-and-webcam?tab=webcam

[carinthian]

There she goes. Piste basher out and about today. Its a start. Need a bit more natural snow to bind with the artificial stuff. Should get a fresh top up tomorrow of a few more cms.

C

 

[Blessed Weather]

This coming weekend sees the first batch of resorts set to open for the season, including Chamonix, Verbier, Obergurgl, Katschberg, Tignes, Val d'Isere and Val Thorens. So it's no surprise to read reports today that resort teams are in overdrive, taking advantage of this cold, snowy week in the Alps to get pistes ready in time.

Here's an insight from the team at Vars in the French Alps:

 

Vars: snow guns running at full speed
The cold of the last 48 hours (-10 degrees Tuesday morning in the resort) allows the service team to run snowmaking 24 hours (per day) on the ski slopes of the White Forest in Vars. Of a total of 225 cannons, 180 of them are in full swing. The current flow is 1300 cubic meters of water per hour on all snow guns. A crucial first phase is to prepare a sustainable underlay until natural snowfall (is sufficient). The second phase is within 48 hours for the snowcats (piste bashers) to take action to spread the snow mounds produced.

 

Photo: Vars resort today

 

http://www.ledauphine.com/hautes-alpes/2015/11/24/vars-les-canons-a-neige-tournent-a-plein-regime

 

[johnholmes]

 

On Saturday, November 28, 2015 the winter sports season begins in Grindelwald , Wengen and Mürren . In recent days, new snow is about half a meter like

just issued with 40cm at height and 30cm in Wengen

Not sure but think this is a week earlier than last year. So many other centres should be open this weekend. I assume for the weekend only until further into December, snow permitting!

[Blessed Weather]

A very encouraging press conference in Austria today reports that winter temperatures have actually fallen and snow amounts have not changed over the last 30 years in a study of 10 Austrian ski resorts. Here are the highlights that I hope I've summarised correctly from a poor Google translation:

 

Winter in our mountains are colder.

Despite climate change, it is colder in the mountains of Austria. Currently there is the paradoxical situation acting that winters above a certain altitude are colder - at least it has been in the last 30 years.

The Tyrolean ski tourism researcher Günther Aigner evaluated the official temperature measurements at ten Austrian mountain resorts. The result shows there is no negative trend.

"Based on these measurements it can be proved that the winters are colder in the mountains of Austria in the last 30 years," said Aigner. The winter temperatures on the Schmittenhöhe in Zell am See (1.954 m) have dropped by 1.3 degrees Celsius, from minus 3.5 to minus 4.8 degrees Celsius. At the Arlberg Ski Galzig (2,090 m) winter temperatures have dropped by 1.4 degrees Celsius, from minus 4.2 to minus 5.6 degrees Celsius.

The same is true of the snow measurement series. "The snow measurement series averages the stations Hochfilzen, Fieberbrunn, Waidring and St. Ulrich, which lie on an average altitude of 864 meters. Even at this relatively low altitude over the past 30 years, there is neither a reduction in the amounts of snow or a shortening of the winter season." said Aigner.

 

http://www.wetter.at/wetter/oesterreich-wetter/Winter-in-unseren-Bergen-werden-haerter/213659787

[carinthian]

Almost ready for the big day tomorrow.

 C

 

[markyo]

http://edelweissspitze.panomax.com/

 

Looking good in the high Alps this morning

[carinthian]

http://edelweissspitze.panomax.com/

 

Looking good in the high Alps this morning

That's a great web cam marko. Fantastic morning in the Eastern Alps. Can see that mountain range of the Gross Glockner this morning.

 C

[carinthian]

 Guten Morgan to the UK Alpine lovers. The sun is out on the dawn of the first day of the new ski -season. Some of the kids from the valley first on the slopes. Must be great to wake up on a Saturday morning and be on the ski slopes in less than a hour ! The snow guns have done the job to help start the season on time. The weekend will be good. Temps expected to rise by Thursday with arrival of warm air flow and freezing level moving beyond 2000m level. That's not good news but we are up and running.

c

[johnholmes]

A much nicer day in your area Paul than the Jungfrau, all pisted and made ready, tables, chairs out at the restaurants yesterday, today=snow and fog on the mountain.

http://www.bahnhof-scheidegg.ch/default.asp?itemid=107〈=e

All the details and photos/videos on this link for the area

http://www.jungfrau.ch/tourismus/reiseinfos/webcams/webcams/

Must be windy on the Murren-Shilthorn side as the cable car and funicular are not operating

Edited November 28, 2015 by johnholmes