Lots of snow (and wind)

Lots of snow (and wind)

It’s on! I’m back in Valfréjus. It was around eight years ago that I spent a lot of time is this tiny gem in the Maurienne Valley in France. Now I’m back. With six Japanese riders of Moss Snowsticks. And the powder is deep. We chose a Ski Maurienne Sans Frontieres liftpass. This pass allows you to ride a new resort in the Maurienne Valley every day. And that for only 22 euro a day. Not bad!

The choice to go for Valfréjus was really good. There was a strong wind above the treeline, so the snow was pretty much windblown, but the Yellow Stone, Le Seuille and le Bois Brulee couloirs were fantastic. About 40 centimeter of freshies, no old avalanche debris and completely untracked. It was not crowded at all in the backcountry of Valfréjus. It was that quiet that we rode untracked powder till the lifts closed. And without any hiking.

There was a lot of powder in other resorts as well. They got around 20-50 centimeter of freshies between Grenoble and Chur, where the French northern Alps and the northwestern regions of Switzerland got the most snow. The wind was pretty strong above 2000 meter, so beware of driftsnow!

Short term

The western Alps got a lot of freshies in the night of Wednesday on Thursday, but the snowfall is moving north on Thursday. The current is moving to the north-northwest and you can expect another 30-50 centimeter of freshies between the Lake of Geneva and the Vorarlberg. Less snow (around 10-25 centimeters) will fall more to the west or to the east. The sun will come out in the west on Thursday and it will truly start snowing in the eastern parts of the Alps. It’s getting cold. As in really cold. It will stay cold everywhere so the snow will be light and fluffy. The higher alpine is an exception, because the wind moved a lot of snow (think about that when choosing your line!).

The northstau will loose some force on Friday and you can expect the last flakes on Saturday. Don’t worry, because PowderAlert #20 is just around the corner. Say what? PowderAlert #20? Yes. And it will start on Sunday or Monday. Location: the northwestern parts of the Alps. More details later. I’m off into the Maurienne to ride some powder.Northstau

Powderadvice

  • Thursday: treeruns in Switzerland and the Vorarlberg, the sun will come out in the west. Time for some powderpics!

  • Friday and Saturday: treeruns in Switzerland, the Vorarlberg and Tirol. It will be sunny in the west. You’ll still find powder in the little secrets.

  • Sunday: the start of PowderAlert #20? Time will tell!

Stay stoked

Morris

meteomorris
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