 Poster: A snowHead
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@clarky999, wow... that looks amazing.
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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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3-4cms more snow fell over night in the city, so I guess 10-15cm on the mountain.
Now I'm about to fly back to the UK for Christmas and stuff myself with fish and chips, pork pies, cheddar, bacon, sausage rolls and more fish and chips 
I'll be back to the Alps before NYE - but in the meantime I hope everyone out over Christmas has great snow and a wonderful time!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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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@clarky999, ganslzeit was in November...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@nozawaonsen, haha true, but leftover sandwich zeit never ends
Just started snowing here too!
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It's about time this thread got an update. After the huge dumps and high avi risk of a couple of weeks ago, it's been a bit drier but cloudy and I didn't manage to get out. Then we had what seemed like a small top up – about 5cm in the village at 600m – on Monday.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was a holiday apparently, and so in order to get into the spirit of things, my boss (that's me), let me have the afternoon off to go and play at Nordkette. Bands of cloud kept moving through, so vis was variable, but the second run down from Hafelekar was in glorious sunshine until we hit the trees. Couldn't complain though, depth was way past the top of our boots. clarky999 heads in:
A lovely sunny day today, so it'll still be nice up there, if a little cold. A little more snow due before the weekend I think.
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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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@Scarlet, Nice
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The weather forecast looked promising again this week, and it did actually snow down to the city on a few occasions. I was able to take one morning off and gambled on Tuesday... Unfortunately it didn't really work out with 5-10cms on ice and a total whiteout at Schlick 2000:
However the weekend was a different matter.
Thursday night/Friday morning brought another ~20cms of snow, before going totally bluebird Saturday/Sunday. All options were open, but having never skied Nockspitze (one the classic mountains overlooking the city) we decided to ski one of the couloirs. In the end the NW already had tracks in and most of the new snow scraped off (it's the steeper/narrower variant) so we went for the NE.
After skinning up the Maierrinne from the Birgitzköpfel lift in Axamer Lizum (I ended up bootpacking half of it due to non-stick skins) we reached the top of Nockspitze in around an hour. From there it was a traverse along the ridge past the NW couloir (drops away to the left in the depression in the ridge line) to the NE:
After cutting an entrance through the cornice a couple of open turns brought us to the actual couloir part. Around 3m wide for 10m or so, not super steep but, going last with all the fresh snow scraped off to the ice below, stimulating enough:
A few more turns below and a little shoulder splits the slope, with a variety of options. We chose to drop into the big bowl, and an awesome long powder run out below with the city in view the whole way - Chris, Vince and Elliot get stoked!
Some brilliant powdery tree skiing then brought us to the Mutteralm ski resort, where a rest and whisky in the sun was in order, before getting the bus back to Axamer Lizum.
After a quick lunch we decided to do another run, dropping off the back of the top lift (Hoadl) into a different valley and a beer at the Kemater Alm. 15 minute bootlick up the ridge then brilliant transforming spring powder the whole way down:
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Mon 26-03-18 7:01; edited 3 times in total
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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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@clarky999, looks like a classy day out! Like the shot of you all with the city below (and the whisky looks well deserved!)
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@clarky999, Nice one Matt, enjoying life in the best of the Tyrol on your door-step.....what could be better?! 
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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And more snow did come! Easter weekend was actually pretty damn good. Fun to ski in St Anton with DaveoftheMarmottes, scarlet, Markymark29 aaaand can't remember your username, T, sorry; though the snow offpiste in most places wasn't too great, there were some lovely slushy moguls lower down.
On Sunday I convinced dulcarama and two others that Ischgl was going to be the best bet with the warm storm coming in. Overall I reckon that was about right, though perfect it wasn't by any means! All photos below from dulcarama.
With reasonably heavy snow in the morning we stuck to the trees for visibility's sake. The first half was pretty nice, 10-15cms on top of a firm but smooth base:
Unfortunately the lower half of the zone was pretty awful... The more open and tracked out sections weren't tooooo bad and fell into the 'good training' end of the spectrum, but the tighter and more out of the way spots were 5-10cms on top of very heavy and very breakable crust. Definitely got the legs working, anyway!
After a few laps of that we took a lunch break. Afterwards the sun started to make an appearance, so we headed higher up the mountain and found some pretty damn good skiing off a ridge. With 20-30cms of new snow, plenty of wind, and definitely slabs lurking, we were pretty cautious at first; but the crowds swiftly guinea-pigged most things, seemingly without a care in the world 
Still great fun hunting out fresher pockets between the tracks and the coming-and-going clouds though!
Then on Easter Monday we went up to Stubai Glacier, figuring it should be a decent powder day. Unfortunately the wind had been at work and it was already getting much warmer, so again a mix between nice powder/firn in places and some fairly manky crust in others.
We had thought about skiing the big Schaufeljoch face - the one that stares you in the eye from pretty much everywhere at Stubai - but after a few too many beers and a pretty solid Nepalese meal the night before motivation for the bootpack wasn't hugely high.
A ~15 minute skin did yield this pretty tasty bowl though, with a fairly long line back down to the lifts below:
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 11-04-18 21:09; edited 2 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@clarky999, nice. Assuming it was the same weekend, I think you need to post the video at the top of the waterfall. For balance, obvs 
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@clarky999, at least Tony got a mention, not so me eh? Ha 😂 it was great early first run in Arlberg Saturday before it warmed, and Sunday was brilliant.
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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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Last weekend was totally different, and the closing weekend for a number of resorts.
It was Ugly Skiing Day at Axamer Lizum so HUGE crowds were guaranteed, so I went to Kühtai with my gf for some lazy piste skiing and sun bathing. With +17°C at 2020m and clear blue skies both were lovely, with perfect soft slushy pistes.
There's still a metric poo-poo ton of snow up there, so it's a shame they're closing next weekend, but should be good for touring well into May/June.
Sunday was closing day at Axamer Lizum, so again a lazy afternoon up there was on the agenda.
The place was absolutely deserted, again with lovely slushy pistes and soft moguls everywhere. Loads of snow all the way to the bottom, and again they could easily keep the lifts running for another month if they wanted too.
As it was the last day they were practically giving food/drink away, with the cashiers ignoring the price list and randomly deciding how much to charge. I got two schnitzels (only asked for one!) plus spinach dumplings and a coke for a whopping €5!
Given the intense sunlight and warmth a lot of big wet slides had ripped on all aspects, and this is something we're seeing and hearing a lot of in all regions at the moment. Be aware if skiing offpiste, and get back on the slopes by lunch time.
As it stands now, on our season pass we have:
- Kühtai open 'til this Sunday 15th April
- Obergurgl open 'til sometime in May
- Stubai announced today they're open until 3rd June
- Touring for months
- St Anton/Ischgl open for a few more weeks (the latter 'til end of the month)
Currently it looks like a bunch more snow due for Obergurgl and Stubai this coming weekend too!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Markymark29, haha! Oops! Were you there? 
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@Markymark29, aah dammit, you were in there but the stupid new bold tags now delete whatever is highlighted when you click them
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