PA#13: South and West

PA #12 brought a great weekend and a great beginning of the week to the Piedmont. And although the powder is still around, PowderAlert #13 is around the corner.

Aftermath #PA12

We still see great reports coming in on our timeline. Thanks for the frequency and quality with which you share reports. They give us a better picture than the webcams that are sometimes placed at strategic positions in the ski areas. So please continue to share!

PowderAlert #PA13: where to go?

Yesterday it was an alert, today I’ll tell you where you can find powder from Sunday. Preferably deep and with some nice trees to ride in. A quick recap… There’s a storm called Steffen coming in from the Atlantic and he will breach the high pressure belt that has been dominating the Alps the last couple of days. The storm track is northwest, but as more often the initial stage will be southwest (because of the incoming front) and that’s no different right now. The snow will fall from the west and southwest on Saturday, and after that a cold front will follow putting the French and especially the Swiss Alps into a snow sandwich. This cold front can push through for a while bringing freshies to the entire western part of the Alps.

It’s quite sure that this will happen and I’m able to tell you where to go on Sunday. It’s still snowing heavily on Saturday and it will be really busy on the roads, because everybody wants to get to their hotel or apartment before 16.00. So the best thing to do is to leave a bit later on Saturday and arrive a bit later in the Alps (let’s say around 20.00). There won’t be that much traffic anymore. But where should you go?

Well, you’ll find the most and deepest powder here:

• Southern Alps Central (especially between Monte Rosa - Gotthard - Berninapass)

• French Southern Alps (forget the Queyras, but everything else is really good… have fun ;))

But even in these regions it is going to be good. It will be dry for a while and you could feel the hard base. But locally it will be deep enough.

• Western Alps Central (Especially the Isère and the pre-Alps of the Savoie, more to the east less snow)

• Western Alps North (Especially in the stau of teh Mt. Blanc, but also Saas Fee, Zermatt and the Simplon)

• Northern Alps West (Especially around the Gotthard, but Nordbünden will be pretty good as well)

• And not to forget… Vorarlberg.

It will continue to snow until Sunday, but the sun will come out pretty soon right after. But then we switch seamlessly to PowderAlert #14. Monday will be pretty warm with a high snowline (dry in the south and some good powder in the trees), but as of Tuesday you can head towards the northern Alps. The exact tips will follow on Monday, but for now, you’ll know where to go. The south on Sunday and Monday. And to the northern Alps from Tuesday.

PowderWatch #14

It is certain that there’s snow coming and it seems to come down into two intense phases. The first start will start on Monday evening and end in the course of Tuesday. The second phase will follow on Wednesday with more snow. Maybe it will snow till the end of last week. There is therefore a PowderWatch for the French Northern Alps and the rest of the Northern Alps, in particular the northwest will get a lot of snow. It will be a great week to go road tripping. And if you’re doing that well you may speak a little bit Italian, French and German in one week and you ride in the trees every day. How much better can it be in the Alps?

So far so good. Sunday evening/Monday morning a new update.

Stay stoked,

Morris