After the last post on the late arrival of the snow this year, anyone planning to ski in Europe this winter will be glad to know that snow has been falling across the Alps (as well as the UK) over the weekend, and quite a few resorts have now opened. I have heard it is snowing in Chamonix and Les 2 Alpes, the Tignes webcams are showing white where there was only green a week ago, here in Andorra we have had a little snow overnight in parts of the country - up to 10cm, and the Spanish television is reporting good snow conditions in the Sierra Nevada (the Spanish one not the US one).
The weather patterns still look quite unsettled, so we may well see more snow before the end of the week. So there is a lot less reason for doom and gloom than just a few days ago.
Incidentally, this BBC Weather video does a good job of explaining why this autumn has been particularly warm and dry, and whilst it is referring to the UK, the same effects have given us a sunny, snowless November in much of the Alps and Pyrenees.
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Monday, 5 December 2011
Friday, 11 April 2008
Bad Weather, Great Skiing
As the title says, the weather has been pretty poor lately, so no photos I'm afraid. We have had a lot of rain lately, which is generally pretty miserable to ski in and being here for the whole winter it can be hard at times to keep the motivation to go skiing in less than ideal conditions.
However, we have the ski school race approaching tomorrow and Flopi (an instructor here by winter and race coach in Argentina in the winter there) planned to set practise courses Tuesday to Wednesday this week. So I headed up the mountain early each day, despite the weather.
On Tuesday morning I looked out of the window at 8am to see fog and rain. On the mountain it was snowing and there was zero visibility so no race practise. Steve (another instructor) and I drove over to Arcalis to ski some powder. The snow was deep, warm and heavy - hard work but it makes you ski properly just to stay upright. We ticked off a couple of chutes I have had my eye on for ages, had a run in the trees, stopped for a coffee then did a bit more off-piste exploration.
Wednesday morning was again rain and fog outside my bedroom window, and on the mountain it was still raining. So we trained some GS gates in the rain for a while, had a good time since we don't get much time in the gates here.
Thursday was again zero visibility and no racing so Steve and I headed to Soldeu and the bump stadium. The sun tried to come out, the rain stopped for a while and the bumps were soft and well shaped - the sort to make you look good. Plenty of people were on training courses and it was quite pleasant to watch them all under pressureA whilst having a relaxed day skiing about - my turn will come later this month with the next Eurotest attempt.
Today there has been slow and steady snow, but with better visibility so we had another day in the gates. The snow was better so it was much more productive this time.
All in all it has been a good four day's skiing when I could quite easily have looked out of the window each morning and gone back to bed. A lesson I need to keep in mind I think.
However, we have the ski school race approaching tomorrow and Flopi (an instructor here by winter and race coach in Argentina in the winter there) planned to set practise courses Tuesday to Wednesday this week. So I headed up the mountain early each day, despite the weather.
On Tuesday morning I looked out of the window at 8am to see fog and rain. On the mountain it was snowing and there was zero visibility so no race practise. Steve (another instructor) and I drove over to Arcalis to ski some powder. The snow was deep, warm and heavy - hard work but it makes you ski properly just to stay upright. We ticked off a couple of chutes I have had my eye on for ages, had a run in the trees, stopped for a coffee then did a bit more off-piste exploration.
Wednesday morning was again rain and fog outside my bedroom window, and on the mountain it was still raining. So we trained some GS gates in the rain for a while, had a good time since we don't get much time in the gates here.
Thursday was again zero visibility and no racing so Steve and I headed to Soldeu and the bump stadium. The sun tried to come out, the rain stopped for a while and the bumps were soft and well shaped - the sort to make you look good. Plenty of people were on training courses and it was quite pleasant to watch them all under pressureA whilst having a relaxed day skiing about - my turn will come later this month with the next Eurotest attempt.
Today there has been slow and steady snow, but with better visibility so we had another day in the gates. The snow was better so it was much more productive this time.
All in all it has been a good four day's skiing when I could quite easily have looked out of the window each morning and gone back to bed. A lesson I need to keep in mind I think.
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