Lars Oelmann

The Austrian national anthem describes this season well "Since early ancestral days borne the burden of a high mission, much-tested Austria. Much-tested Austria."

Yay! another alert, but it's probably getting too warm. The last alert was perfect, but this one is just glop©* *the © is silent and is only important because PowderGuide owns all registered naming rights to this water-saturated fresh snow.

Well, after warming up with the alert limit in Alert 7, Ullr our favorite god finally gives us some real snow. The only downer: it snows the most where there is little snow and where the foundation of the snowpackis rather dangerous.

After weeks of drought, there is finally some hope – at least in the south. This small snowfall could be just the beginning.

Not so long ago in a mountain range close close by..... DROUGHT. The stars don't lie. At least not the ones in the PowderGuide ConditionReports. One star, two stars. There's rarely more for the snow conditions at the moment.

This Chinese curse (all Sinologists roll their eyes because the oracle is giving out dangerous half-knowledge) describes our coming days quite well. But the oracle wants - no, has to - write something now, even if a lot is still unclear for Friday/Saturday, because it's snowing. And it's actually snowing right through to Saturday with short breaks.

You're supposed to have good intentions in the new year and the oracle wants to be less serene and more enthusiastic in his old age. Ullr also takes heart and wants to give us more powder.

The time has come. The Oracle says "all systems go", squeezes into the skintight clothing of an attractive pit crew member, as found in motor racing, and waves the green flag, officially heralding the start of the Christmas race.

It's finally that time again. Christmas time, PowderAlert time. And not just one but two holidays are coming up, because Ullr has finally woken up from hibernation. At the beginning of December, it looked like there would be a real second PowderAlert, but two days before the Alert was due to take place, it was swiftly cancelled and instead of the expected 70-100cm, we got 20-30cm. The oracle was quite surprised at the accuracy of today's crystal ball. That's why PowderAlerts always come just before the snowfall, because nothing is worse than snow that doesn't fall but has been hyped up in advance. Now the time has come, because first there will be a little warm-up until Friday evening and then the second Alert will come on Saturday with a really big bag of fresh snow, then also in the EAST!

In times of crisis, people are happy to see not only the colours of the traffic lights in the news (german politics joke), but also the best colour of all, white. Educated physicists with an affinity for art may now lament that it is not a colour, but the oracle doesn't care, because white is the colour of love. The love of any freerider and finally we get to see it again on our beloved mountains.

With this last nordstau, Ullr is sending us what could be the last cold snowfall suitable for weekends and the oracle is using this opportunity to bid a highly official farewell to the summer break, as medium range forecast does not look like there will be any more wintry surprises until the end of April.

Disclaimer: Schlager lyrics will not make sense in English. They do not make sense in German either, so dont worry ;) Ullr is on the retreat, but one last time the pop fan wants to dance the samba with us in the powder, because the powder makes us happy. Powder, Powder Powder, maybe tomorrow it will be over?