After a week of heliskiing it’s cold smoke blower powder again…in the Alps! It really feels like Canada! I’ve been traveling up and down the Maurienne Valley in France and the conditions are awesome. You can ride everything, drop everything and shred everything. And I am not the only one cheering. The avalanche services just hardly can’t believe the conditions as well!
It’s deep out there and finally the sun came out on Friday. I’m riding with some Moss Snowstick riders from Japan and we can’t complain about lack of attention. We ride first tracks everyday and today when the sun came out, it really was surfing on snow. We slashed that faces today as if it were big waves. The conditions weren’t just great in the Maurienne Valley. The reports on Powfinder showed that the conditions are great in the western and northern parts of the Alps.
Yesterday was our last day in the Maurienne Valley. We are in Chamonix today. It will be pretty hard to get some first tracks there. Fortunately for us, PowderAlert #20 is on its way. But will it bring powder?
Short term
The last precipitation will come from the north on Saturday. You can expect another twenty centimeters of pow in the northern Alps. It’s sunny in the southern Alps, like it is in the French southern Alps. The weather will change on Sunday.
PowderAlert#20
A storm is moving from the British islands and France to the Golf of Genua and will arrive on Monday. The weststau is changing into a southstau. The will result in freshies in the entire French Alps on Sunday. But the real storm will start just shortly after that. The combination of very cold air from the north and the pretty warm Mediterranean will result in lots of freshies for the southern Alps. An impressive southstau will hit the Alps on Monday and Tuesday. And to be honest, that was pretty necessary. We were travelling through the southern Alps to the Maurienne Valley on Tuesday, and most of the resorts we passed along the way could use some extra snow. We can hit the larch trees of the southern Alps again next week with the snow to come!
Powderadvice
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Saturday and Sunday: western and northern Alps. The treeruns are awesome (better than ever this winter) and you still can find powder in the little secrets. The southern slopes did get influenced by the sun today (even though its pretty cold).
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Monday and Tuesday: southern Alps, southern Alps and if you’re not sure about where to ride: southern Alps. The treeruns will be deep (especially on Tuesday).
I’m on the road and the wifi sometimes isn’t that good, but I’ll do my best to post an update on Sunday!
Stay stoked and enjoy the cold smoke blower pow .
Morris