The conditions are excellent at the moment in Austria, Switzerland and the French northern Alps. They got around 70-150 centimeter of freshies last week. It was cold and the snow was that dry that the word ‘Champaign Powder’ was heard quite a lot. The sun has been shining for a couple days and as a result all the powder that can be easily reached is completely tracked. The sun influenced the faces with a southern exposure and put a little crust layer on top of the snow below 1700 meters. But if you’ll start searching (touring, treeruns, little resorts) you’ll sure find powder. The base is awesome and the pillows are in perfect conditions. It just couldn’t be better for all the riders that are about to hit the Alps for their holiday!
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 traveling 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!
Details, details!
You can expect the first snow in the night from Sunday to Monday. I expect the most snow to fall south of the Ecrins (French southern Alps), around Courmayeur and in the western and southern Piemonte (southern Alps west) till Monday afternoon. The lesser know resorts in the Vercores (such as Villard de Lans) can expect lots of powder as well. Expect around 20-40 centimeter, locally even 60 centimeters!
The storm will move to the east on Monday night. The first mountains in the central southern Alps and the southern Alps in the east can expect lots of freshies. I expect 20-40 centimeters, locally even 80 centimeters in these regions. The heaviest snowfall will be in the Dolomites, the Alpe di Julia and the Karntischer Alps.
A new front will hit the northern Alps on Wednesday. Again. Because the current storm is moving to the east, it allows colder air to move south and bring snow to the northern Alps. A north stau will hit the east of Switzerland and the northern Alps of Austria. This storm will bring around 20-45 centimeters of freshies. The resorts in the main alpine ridge can expect 5-15 centimeters.
Powder advice
• Sunday: western and northern Alps. Especially the Austria northern Alps still have lots of pow. 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).
• Monday: powder in the northen Alps of Austria or powder in the Ecrins and Courmayeur.
• Tuesday and Wednesday: southern Alps, southern Alps and if you’re not sure about where to ride: southern Alps. The treeruns will be deep (especially on Tuesday).
• Thursday: the northern Alps or find some untracked lines in the southern Alps.
Stay stoked and enjoy the cold smoke blower pow .
Morris