Lea Hartl

The meteorological winter (December, January, February) has been over since Monday. In Austria, it went down in the statistics as the second warmest winter in recorded history at 2.7° above the long-term average, and in Germany it was also 3.4° warmer than the average. In Austria, only 2006/07 was warmer, 2013/14 was just as warm. This means that five of the 10 warmest winters in the 250-year measurement history have occurred in the last 10 years. Nevertheless, and because the weather is known to not always stick to the calendar, it was, is and will be relatively wintry, at least in the mountains. We take a closer look at this below.

I have a cell phone with me when I'm skiing, if only for safety reasons. Of course, taking pictures and listening to music on your smartphone isn't bad either. Sometimes I take a helmet camera with me, or maybe a real camera, or both, or an MP3 player, or a GPS, or a radio, or something else from the electronic fleet that many of us have at home. Unfortunately, none of this really works well with the avalanche transceiver. Why is that and what should I look out for?

Last weekend was interesting in terms of weather and regrettable in terms of skiing. After heavy rain during the night, temperatures of around 20 degrees were measured in many places during the day on Sunday. The leader in Austria was Pottschach (Lower Austria) with 23.2° - a new national record for February. What was going on?

The Mediterranean lows that have been so frequent in recent winters have been rare so far this season. Low pressure system Virginie ends the west/northwest trend, at least in the (very) short term, and the south-east can be happy.

Low pressure system Ruzica disturbed the carnival revelers in the German carnival strongholds on Rose Monday. Low Susanna then put the finishing touches to the whole thing last night. Together with a strong föhn wind, the carnival in the Alps was also blown away by the wind.

A fundamental gender injustice that no women's rights movement has been able to change in the slightest is the fact that women have a harder time urinating in the open air for anatomical reasons. Woe betide those who wear dungarees, strap their avalanche transceivers over their suspenders and pull two layers of fleece over them.

The tried-and-tested Link Group Communications radios from BCA (Backcountry Access) have been available since last season in a version tailored to Europe, which is adapted to local regulations in terms of frequency range (PRM) and transmission power. The Link devices are specially designed for skiers.

If you want to know something about the stability of the snow cover and would rather not test it by driving into it, you need alternatives. The basic principle of snow cover tests is similar to driving in: You hit it or otherwise provide a load and see what happens. Unlike driving in, you do this in a controlled environment so that you can actually have a look first and don't get buried straight away.

Just a few days ago, the Alps were still in a mild, westerly flow. There was precipitation, but unfortunately not in the right state of aggregation for the most part. What has changed?

Warm, unsettled westerly weather will dominate the Alpine region. With fresh winds and a high snow line, minor disturbances will keep moving through, initially on Friday night and Sunday. Otherwise, it will be reasonably bright and, as mentioned, warm. The westward slide will continue into next week. The possibility of a downstream development from the middle of next week offers some hope, but as usual this is still very uncertain.

Part 2 of the ISPO Report 2016: Pieps and Arva present new avalanche transceivers at ISPO, while the other manufacturers stick to their existing models. When it comes to airbags, various manufacturers are in a fierce race for the lightest system. Arcteryx and Arva are presenting airbag backpacks for the first time. Ortovox is now also using its own system.

Hurrah, it's snowing! The WeatherBlog has been skiing and the air has once again glistened so beautifully. We wonder why. Unfortunately, the glittering, original and organic snow produced in real clouds is not yet enough for skiing everywhere, so we also look at some interesting aspects of artificial snow production.