PA #16: A powder day and another storm

PA #16: A powder day and another storm

The rain turned into snow during Monday pretty much everywhere. Fortunately, it was in the inner alpine valleys of Switzerland already cold enough that it was snowing pretty much the whole day in villages like Davos, Andermatt and Zinal, but further to the west and north there was still a lot of rain. Especially in France it was pretty miserable and in many places the snowcover got very wet to a depth of 30-50 cm. The inevitable result of a lot of rain.

The cold air really kicked in yesterday afternoon, but most of the rain had already fallen in the French Alps, leaving only a few centimeters on the already soaked snow cover below 2000 meters. Above 2000 meters on the other hand around 30-50 cm of snow came down, but… during heavy winds. So watch out today for wet snow avalanches below 2000 meters (that wet snow is not completely frozen) and for slab avalanches above 2000 meters.

In the east of Switzerland, the inner alpine valleys and western Austria also had some nice amounts of fresh snow and the snow line dropped earlier because of the incoming cold air. Add the fact that it snowed longer over there and you understand you might squeeze out a nice terrain somewhere between Andermatt and the Arlberg.

Where to go… Tuesday

My list about where to go is virtually identical to that of Monday. The really high altitude resorts in France got their share, but you have to look very high (over at least 2000 meters). Think of La Grave, Alpe d’Huez, Paradiski, Espace Killy and Chamonix. But as expected, you are better of in the Arlberg, eastern Switzerland or in the Gotthard region. Start searching in the regions below:

Wednesday: it’s getting started

A new storm is ready to hit the Alps on Wednesday. A low pressure area is coming down from the northwest and will end up south of the Dolomites. In its wake cold air will come in and it will snow deep into the valleys. It will snow in the northwest first and it will start to snow in the night to Thursday in the Northern Alps and later in the Dolomites. Wednesday will be gray, cold and it will snow (from Chambéry in France till the east of Austria).

And after that: a northern Stau

In the wake of this storm a classic northern current is generated which will bring snow to the northern Alps. A northern Stau that will come in two stages. First it will snow until Thursday. We get some rest right after and then more snow will come down from Friday to Saturday. In my sharpened advice today the following regions have the best cards. The French northern Alps will also be good on Thursday, but after that, only the northern Alps will be really good. And therefore:

Tuesday is nice, but nothing special. It is pretty dangerous because of the wind and many snow above 2000 meters. Only from Wednesday the northern Stau will come in and then it could be pretty deep.

Stay stoked

Morris

meteomorris
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