© Joe Vallone at La Grave
What a winter! PowderAlert #29 delivered! Lots of places in the western Alps central (Isere and Savoie), western Alps north (the west of Wallis and the Savoie), the northern Alps west (northern alpine rigde) and even the southwest range of the Hautes Alpes (French southern Alps) got around 30-60 cm of freshies above 1800 meters. This was locally even more than one meter above 2200 meters. The sun will come out on Wednesday and as a result the temperature will rise rapidly. This means that the snowcover will be really unstable temporarily. You have to be aware of dry snow avalanches in the morning, but the risk of wet snow avalanches will rise in the afternoon. Enjoy the powder, but be aware of the changing conditions of the snowpack.
Powder advice till Wednesday
Short term: sunny and warm
Wednesday and Thursday will be sunny days and the temperature will go up especially on Thursday. A new front is coming in from the southwest causing the southern föhn to kick in and the temperatures may rise up to twenty degrees in the northern Alps on Thursday. It will start snowing in the southern Alps later the day. The snow line will be around 1500 meters in the south, and around 2000 meters in the west and the north. The southern föhn will be gone by Friday and the flurries will move into the northwestern and the northern regions of the Alps. The temperature will drop and the snowline in the northwest and the north will drop to 1200 meters. It will be another indication that winter still hasn’t left the buildling, cause you might expect 15-40 centimeters of freshies. And that’s just enough for PowderAlert #30. The snow will be pretty good on Saturday and spring will kick in just after that.
Powder advice for Saturday
More and more resorts are closing and after this weekend only some resorts will have their lifts open. Check out this article where you can still ride (lift assisted that is). It will get harder after the weekend of 13/14 April. The conditions will be okay in the resorts in the main alpine ridge. We’ll have to start searching for powder on Sunday, but you’ll definitely find something on higher north faces.
It will be warm on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and there might be some snowfall on the 16th and the 17th of April. It will be colder (temporarily of course) and the temperatures will go up just after that. The weather will go up and down the next week, but the conditions seem to stabilize after that, so you can go out and start touring.
Let’s go higher!
Freeride resorts such as La Grave, Chamonix, Verbier, Espace Killy, Zermatt, Saas Fee, St. Moritz, Solden, Pitztal and Stubai have excellent conditions. The north faces still have a great snow cover and with the instability in the air at the moment there is more to come. Almost time for the big couloirs and steep faces!
Stay stoked
Morris