PA #18: Over 100 cm of freshies

PA #18: Over 100 cm of freshies

It is ON in the western Piedmont. It’s snowing since Saturday and in just 18 hours they 50 centimeters of freshies and in 24 hours even 100 centimeters from Sestrière to Limone Piemonte. I took the photo below on Sunday at 9:00 AM, Sunday at 17:15 PM and Monday morning at 7:30 in Sestrière. Do you need to know more?Sestrière: 100 cm in 23 hours time

Summary

  • It’s deep in the western Piemonte and the east of the Queyras.

  • The front intensifes in the night to Monday

  • The front expands into the northern Piemonte, Ticino and the Dolomites

  • It will snow in the complete Italian Alps on Monday

  • It will still snow in the Piemonte on Tuesday

  • Deep treeruns in the Piemonte on Monday and Tuesday

  • The sun and high temperatures return on Wednesday, so you’ll have to look higher for powder

  • Lots of drift snow and windslabs due to heavy wind

It was a gamble. Booking a powder trip with kids last-minute. As a powder chaser I know exactly what I want. But with kids that may be quite different. Only on Friday evening at 19:00 we made the call where we would go. In the car the whole Saturday and in the evening we arrived in the fresh snow in Sestrière. At that time only a few centimeters, on Sunday morning already 20 centimeters, at the end of the afternoon around 50 cm and at the time of writing more than 100 cm. The treeruns in Sestrière were deep and what is more beautiful to see the blissful faces of two rug rats aged 8 and 10 years old riding deep powder. And it’s knee to hip deep for us, but for them it’s shoulder deep.Deep, deep powder in the village

It was sometimes a struggle and sometimes they got stuck in the snow, but the turns, the face shots and pleasure are priceless. Of course they’re wearing a beacon and I explain to them what we do and why we do it in the hope that some of that knowledge will last. Above the tree line, I could show them what the effect of the wind is on the snow. In the larch forests on the other hand we could ride pretty steep and it was necessary with all that snow.

Fortunately, the snow is cold and feels a bit like Canada (in a good year) and Japan. Cold smoke blower pow and it’s mid-March. It could be worse. And will be even deeper today.Another 30-70 cm of freshies

You can expect another 30-70 centimeters of freshies in the Piemonte and 5-30 cm in the rest of the Italian Alps between today and Tuesday night. The Piedmont is, as expected, the best option for some nice powder. There’s still a PowderAlert for:

It will be warmer in the south from Wednesday. In the rest of the Alps it’s already pretty warm because of the Föhn and it feels like spring on Wednesday and Thursday with a freezing level above 2000 meters.

PowderAlert #19 next week?

The pressure maps point again on a return d’est for early next week and for snow in the Italian Alps, but there are still too many uncertainties to launch a powder watch right now. I put my snorkel on today and explore the trees of Sestrière.

A new update will follow on Wednesday. The short term is clear and hope to tell you more about the long term on Wednesday.

Stay stoked

Morris

meteomorris

Replies

Tourist
8611Author17 March 2015 · 11:22

Brilliant! So jealous, hope the kids enjoy it.

Reply
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