Eliane Droemer

The Bavarian Avalanche Warning Service started the season this winter with a new website, which is real news. After all, a good presentation here can lead to greater safety by ensuring that more people read and understand the bulletin.

Splitboard equipment is an expensive affair. To be sure that the equipment is satisfactory and fun both on the ascent and the descent, a test festival offers the ideal conditions. As you are spoiled for choice at a test festival, here are a few valuable tips from mr.splitboards Simon Graf on how to find the best equipment for you personally.

There are still places available at seven different camps for splitboarders, including the "mr.splitboards Pyrenees adventure" in March and the big "Climb the Mountain" test festival at the end of January, where you can rent directly from the manufacturers. Participants include Arbor, Amplid, Jones, Furberg, Rossignol, mr.splitboards, Never Summer, Rome, Gara and Weston.

Why is the walk mode not for walking, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the different binding systems and how do you find your way around the range of special softboot bindings for splitboards? To find out more about the differences between the systems, we asked someone who has been dealing with splitboards more than anyone else for around 20 years: Simon Graf from Splitboards Europe.

They ensure the safety of winter sports enthusiasts every day - one for around 8 guests a day in an unsecured area with all the dangers of the Alps, the other for up to 8,000 people on secured slopes. We are talking about ski and mountain guide Christian Räss from "Engelberg Mountain Guides" and Christoph Bissig, head of the Titlis piste and rescue service for 20 years.

Simon Graf, splitboarder from the very beginning, is launching three self-developed shapes this season with his newly founded label mr.splitboards: All MNT, High MNT and Powder MNT. He draws on over 20 years of experience in the industry. Wait - splitboards already existed 20 years ago? Yes, but the beginnings were adventurous! In this interview, Simon talks about his drive and we find out more about the history of splitboarding.

The Initiative for an Alpine-wide standardised avalanche forecast - IFALP - would like to see situation reports no longer stop at national borders. PG columnist Lukas Ruetz is committed to IFALP. We took the opportunity to find out more about how IFALP came about and what the initiators want for the future of avalanche warning in the Alps. An interview by Eliane Droemer:

Winter sports enthusiasts who enjoy being out in the open terrain benefit enormously from the free service of the daily avalanche situation report (LLB). During the winter months, Eliane Droemer found out how the situation report is created every day from over 200,000 pieces of data and observations in the terrain, what news there is from research and what experiences the team has in common during the first control flight of the 18/19 season with LWD Tirol in mid-December.