Lukas Ruetz

Far too little attention is paid to humidity in everyday snowmaking. However, its influence on the snow cover is just as important as the temperature. Let's consider a marriage in which complete equality between the two partners is the reality.

Winter is here, as is the snow, and the Snow Sturgeon has also returned to the keyboard from his snow profile hole in the Western Alps. With reference to last season's SnowFlurry columns, we are recalling some of the terms that regularly appear there.

The sporty winter is far from over and is picking up speed again these days. The snow flurries are now moving to higher altitudes with steeper slopes on average and are hoping for a few more turns of fluffy powder, followed by sizzling firn and summer firn, before surviving the summer in a snow profile hole on the highest glaciers in the Western Alps in heat torpor. So it's time to sum up:

Spring is unbeatable with the presentation of snow of all conceivable categories. We dedicate ourselves to two variations that have nothing to do with the common powder but somehow subjectively belong to powder.

Summer firn is a little-known type of snow among skiers - but summer mountaineers often encounter it. We discuss the most important characteristics of snow that is usually reserved for hardy ski tourers and pick up where the last SnowFlurry left off.

Moisture penetration and nocturnal radiation now become the primary avalanche-forming factor. What about temperature reserve, original layer sequence, humidity and isothermality?

The tiresome issue of human error with the old snow problem remains - just like human error with the danger levels.

You only ski good powder once or twice a season. Carrying skis is part of it. The real touring season is spring.

For the coming weekend, there are warnings of a Föhn storm on the main Alpine ridge and the areas north of it - including Saharan dust. Almost every skier is familiar with foehn or foehn-like effects on the mountain. Especially those who like to stay in areas on the main Alpine ridge. But what does the downdraft do to the snow cover?

The indication of altitude in conjunction with avalanche problems and danger levels is the backbone of the avalanche warning. In most cases, the delineations are surprisingly accurate.

In an existing ascent track or on tracked slopes, the avalanche danger can be greater than on the same slope in untracked condition. What sounds absurd at first is easy to understand on closer inspection.

There is now a wealth of popular scientific works on the internet that are relatively easy to understand. Finding these is usually the greater challenge. A collection that can be expanded at will: