Powder late April?

It’s late April, summer is well on its way and it felt like Spring in the Alps the last couple of days. A lot of resorts already closed their lifts for the season. But there’s more snow on its way. Wax up… there’s snow coming for the higher alpine. There aren’t that much lifts open anymore, but some resorts still have their lifts running.

There are basicly two options to ride some powder (because there will be two dumps)

• the east of Austria and Italy (Friday and Saturday)

• the high alpine of France and the Monte Rosa

It will be warm between the two dumps and especially on Sunday it is still warm with an initially high snowline. But if you want to go out there once again…Now is the time.

Dump 1: go east

An upper low (a bell with cold air) is moving slowly but surely over the east of Austria and Italy today. The result is that the moist air can cool down considerably and in the next 24 hours it will snow intense, where the snow line will be around 1500 to 2000 meters. Expect 20-35 cm of freshies in and around the Hohe Tauern, while in the Dolomites even more is coming down.

Friday and Saturday will be powder days. The lifts are still running in the resorts below:

• Obertauern

• Kaprun

If you happen to know where the lifts are running as well, please drop it in the comments.

Dump 2: go west

This dump is a bit more complicated, but will bring a lot more snow. No bubble with cold air, but a classic southwestern flow that will collide with the French Ecrins and Monte Rosa massif. The snowline will be relatively high at first, but with the arrival of the cold front early next week it will be temporarily cooler. And the cold air will come in after Monday. The best days would be Tuesday and Wednesday, although I see plenty of opportunities for Monday for La Grave for example. The only problem is that La Grave is already closing on Sunday. Just like many other resorts.

And that’s a shame because the perspective is good. Our snow maps only show four days, but below an impression of what is expected until Monday morning.

This second dump is coming in too late, because a lot of resorts will close their lifts after April 26th. When all the snow has fallen, only Engelberg, Chamonix and Zermatt will be open. Cervinia will open its lifts on the 29th for the weekend.

Wednesday and Thursday will be powder days. The lifts are still running in the resorts below:

• Zermatt

• Engelberg

• Chamonix

But pay attention, details may shift the next couple of days. But the details may shift the next couple of days. Keep an eye on this forecast.

Stay stoked

Morris