Where would you find un-groomed snow? I did four ski trips last winter and never saw any – well maybe a few patches. The slopes were hard-packed and with grooves.
It’s obviously much easier to ski on real snow.
Peter wrote:
Where would you find un-groomed snow?
Just after it snowed (and machines didn’t pass)
Off piste
When snow is not snow but ice
On piste but moguls (bumps) after too many people passed.
Probably many other examples!
Yeah, but you are pulling my leg with all points except the first one 
Maybe you are saying that if it snows during the night, you get fresh snow if you get out there early in the morning.
By pulling your leg do you mean you don’t understand?
Groomed snow is usually very flat (no bumps) and has a “saw” profile. It’s fairly densely packed.
After snowing, before anyone destroys it (by moving away or packing, while skiing), you get some soft snow (powder) which gives a very different ski experience (I think most people’s favourite).
Off piste means off the normal boundaries of a slope (piste = slope). Since much less people pass, snow tends to be softer. Also, by definition, machines (groomers) don’t really pass there, otherwise it wouldn’t be off piste.
Ice: either very compact snow, or snow that melts and then refreezes in an ice form. Skis have very little grip there, and you might easily lose your balance when you transition to (/from) that type of snow.
Moguls: bumps, they get created by people repeatedly passing in same tracks. It’s much easier to ski in the lower part so it forms quite quickly if snow is soft.
Peter wrote:
Where would you find un-groomed snow? I did four ski trips last winter and never saw any – well maybe a few patches. The slopes were hard-packed and with grooves.It’s obviously much easier to ski on real snow
You have to go to resorts that specialise in ungroomed snow, such as Chamonix, La Grave, Courmayeur, Verbier – or ones that have ungroomed itineraries (often shown in yellow on ski maps) like Zermatt, Deux Alpes, Val d’Isère, St-Moritz, Mürren to name a few.
Most resorts will groom runs as it is a lot easier to ski with the modern shaped skis (= more sales). Unpacked snow will quickly be turned into moguls by unexperienced skiers, and moguls put off a lot of customers.
Deep ungroomed snow also requires a different technique to ski than groomed snow. Weight transfer won’t work very well :-)
Hmmm; a lot to be learnt here. I have never been to a ski place where it snowed when I was there!
But when flying by GA one books at the last moment (maybe 3 days ahead) and chooses blue skies anyway because most of the places are practically inaccessible in IMC…
If I may come with a suggestion – maybe in order to fully leverage GA mobility it is worth taking a couple weeks to properly and intensively learn how to ski; then you’ll enjoy all types of runs a lot more and you won’t compound GA travel difficulty by the ski resort choosing criteria.
Take a good two weeks, go to a place with pro instructors and large slopes – like say Three Valleys or Zermatt (latter has far better food) where runs look more like runways and you can learn even in foul weather – and I am betting dollars to pennies that your experience will eventually be a lot better. A couple of ski days here and there isn’t going to work.
Peter wrote:
But when flying by GA one books at the last moment (maybe 3 days ahead) and chooses blue skies anyway because most of the places are practically inaccessible in IMC…
Not sure the correlation is that strong:
1) the weather in the resorts can very different than the weather at the airport that you might use near the resort. (you might stay couple thousand feet above the airport))
For instance, a week ago I had this for my entire stay:
And the airport (Grenoble Le versoud, LFLG) 10 min (flight) away had “marginal VFR” conditions (it appeared in clound, and we didn’t fly to pretty much all the time (3000m BR (Mist)). We didn’t fly there because of airplane being VFR only and there not being any approach.
2) Not having a mountain / site rating, you also likely won’t land at the actual resort
3) Weather can also change pretty fast in the mountain.
Personally, when I’ve flow, things were “booked” relatively last minute (well, I don’t have to “book” the accomodation which is basically all of it), but I’ve flown into Lyon Bron LFLY, and had every possible combination (IMC on arrival, blue ski at ski, CAVOK on arrival, snow at ski, etc..).
Can you also easily find accomodation last minute in the busy season?
If I were you, I would book something for a week, possibly fly a little further away (Geneva, Lyon Bron), rent a car, and get ski lessons for a week. There will be much less weather pressure to get there, and after a week’s instruction you should be ready for 90% of the slopes, which will in turn unlock a lot more destinations (Since I understand you are limiting yourself in destinations because of their level, right now)
Hmmm… Justine is quite keen on this idea, so long as the hotel is nice
I need some ideas…. by email or PM perhaps because they would be OT for GA. I didn’t think Zermatt had any easy skiing, except little slopes for kids.
February/March is the likely time, when the TKS will hopefully be in the process of being installed. There is bound to be snow in most places then.
Peter wrote:
I need some ideas…. by email or PM perhaps because they would be OT for GA. I didn’t think Zermatt had any easy skiing, except little slopes for kids.
I would definitely go for Avoriaz – statistically you are guaranteed the best snow, you will find nice accommodation and it is easy to get to from GVA by airliner. if you are committed to booking a week, (and so far the Northern Alps aren’t looking great for snow), this is the place I would go. I often drive for an hour on weekends to go there when there are much closer resorts, simply because it is the biggest ski resort (in KM of slopes) in the world (Portes du soleil) and you will always find some snow for all levels on which to ski. Personal taste obviously…
