Lea Hartl

In all probability, 2015 will be the warmest year on record. This has been on the cards for a long time and everyone has probably noticed by now. Recently, the WMO issued another press release explaining this once again. It also mentioned that 2011-2015 was the warmest five-year period on record.

As every year, the Austrian Avalanche Warning Services have made last winter's report available for free download (pdf) just in time for the start of the new season. It's worth a look, if only for the many sobering pictures and accident reports. The report contains guest contributions from avalanche wardens from Bavaria, Slovenia and South Tyrol. We have summarized a few key facts.

The fog hangs in the valley, the days are getting shorter, the nights cooler, the drinks warmer. Industry magazines report either enthusiastically or critically on the events that take place on every glacier every weekend. It's the most beautiful time of the year. It's fall. But especially for skiers who are more (i.e. exclusively) off-piste, the time before the real start of winter and the first heavy snowfalls harbors a considerable number of dangers that should be taken into account.

As explained by our colleague Orakel, a north-westerly current will bring a supply of snow to the NW congestion areas, which are already in a better position. In the south, winter is still a long time coming and there is a threat of spring on the horizon at the meteorological start of winter.

The WeatherBlog is currently receiving a lot of questions about El Niño, which is this year - or was it La Niña? What is all this again and what does it mean for the Alps? Haven't we covered this topic before? Yes, we have. To start with: there is still no clear, statistically definitive correlation between El Niño and the Alpine winter that anyone can agree on.

There's no end to late summer. At the weekend, a weak cold front will touch the northern Alps and bring some cooling, perhaps even a little snow for the optics. Next week, however, the tough November high will return and it will be business as usual for the time being. A onset of winter in the desired sense is not in sight (not even at the weekend).

The main character in the third part of the Black Diamond TV web series is the gondola in La Grave. The four-minute film is a declaration of love to the legendary lift, whose continued existence is in danger.

The WeatherBlog is back from its summer break, although summer is doing the same.

Films about skiing fall under the umbrella term "ski porn". The porn aspect probably refers to the fact that there is often little or no framing story and that you don't have to think about it because of the moneyshots. There are occasionally films that do it differently, or at least try to. The complexity of the plot is usually somewhere between "Why is there straw here" and Fifty Shades of Grey.

The second part of Arc'teryx's Commit Webseries is about things you could theoretically do.

With the Atom series, Arc'teryx has various jacket models in its range that are intended as an insulating middle (or sometimes outer) layer. The in-house Coreloft filling provides high thermal performance with low weight, even when damp. The jackets are available in the light version (LT) tested here and in the somewhat more robust all-round (AR) version, as well as in a version without a hood (Atom LT).

The second episode of Black Diamond TV follows avalanche forecaster and researcher Drew Hardesty. Hardesty lives and works in Utah and has been observing developments in the ski touring scene for a long time.