Up to 1 meter of fresh snow in the Piedmont! When can we expect snow in the northern Alps?

Over one meter of snow already came down in the Piedmont the past 60 hours. But what about the other regions in the Alps? Austria and Switzerland are dying for snow. So the question is: when can we expect a northern Stau? Let’s start the forecast with a message filled with hope. Because the American model came up with the weather map below. Anyway, I’ll start with the Piedmont, but scroll down to the bottom to read more about the northern Alps.

In this forecast:

• Lots of powder in the Piedmont and the southeast of France
• HIGH avalanche danger locally
• PowderAdvice for the next couple of days
• When can we expect snow in the northern Alps?

Lots of powder in the Piedmont and the southeast of France

Between 50-120 cm of fresh snow came down in the Italian Piedmont, east of the Aosta and the resorts in the southern French Alps and the Haute Maurienne close to the border. The most (and best) snow fell in the Piedmont where the wind was not as strong as in the French resorts.

HIGH avalanche danger locally

Because of the snowfall, the temperature, the wind, the old layer of surface hoar, old layers in the snowpack or the hard top layer, the new snow bonds pourly with snowpack. The avalanche danger has increased from LOW to CONSIDERABLE or even HIGH in the last 60 hours. Check out this article again and adapt your plans to it.

PowderAdvice for the next couple of days

I already published a list with resorts yesterday, but I’ve added some suggestions. Check it out:

• Via Lattea, Sestrière/Pragelato: The eastern parts of Sestrière normally has less wind
• Via Lattea, Sauze d’Oulx: you can find some trees up to 2300 meters on north faces. You’ll find a base above 1900 meters and maybe you could ride between the trees.
• Prali: no base below 1800 meters, use the groomed slope to get back to the valley (40 cm in the village right now).
• Bardonecchia, Jafferau/Bardonecchia 2000: Great conditions above 2000 meters, but lots of wind. It’s never really steep.
• Bardonecchia, Melezet: You’ll probably find great snow above Chesal.
• Monte Rosa, Alagna/Gressoney: great base above 2000 meter.
• Limone Piemonte: Pay attention: no base before this dump
• Prato Nevoso: Pay attention: no base before this dump
• Montgenèvre: good base above 1800 meters, but they had lots of wind
• Valfréjus: good base above 2000 meters, but they had lots of wind
• Isola 2000: good base above 2000 meters, but they had lots of wind
• Bonneval sur Arc: good base above 2000 meters, but they had lots of wind
• Val Cenis: good base above 2000 meters, but they had lots of wind
• Abriès: good base above 1800 meters, but they had lots of wind

The resort below opens on Friday the 23rd of December:

• Champorcher: great base and lots of fresh snow.

You have to pay attention to the warm air coming in today. Fortunately, the skies in the night to Thursday will be clear and this allows the snowcover to radiate its moisture. You can ride great powder on shadow faces above 2000 meters on Thursday and Friday.

When can we expect snow in the northern Alps?

Check out the map below again. It’s the output of the American model and that offers hope. Especially the northern Alps in Austria have good chances of snowfall according to this output.

A small change in the weather maps is responsible for this positive output. The high pressure area above the Alps (which is there for a couple of weeks) moved a bit to the west compared to yesterday. It creates room for a current from the north and this should bring snow to the north side of the main alpine ridge around Christmas. It’s definitely not sure yet, but if offers hope and perspective. And hope is something we all can use these days.

Stay stoked. Morris