Lukas Ruetz

Depending on the area and altitude, there are already some melting crusts within the snow cover that have been created by rain events or warm air intrusions. Weak layers often develop around these. Why is this?

Aaron Rice (Instagram: @airandrice) from Utah broke the world record for vertical meters climbed on touring skis this year and is well on his way to achieving his goal of 2.5 million vertical feet (= 762,000 vertical meters). What sounds incredible to the downhill-oriented ski tourer is also hard to grasp for the uphill-oriented. So the question arises: who is the crazy type and how many vertical meters can you theoretically cover in a calendar year?

There are a lot of things in snow and avalanche science that can be classified as wrong or at least need to be put into perspective. Misunderstanding of complex contexts also plays a role in this respect. We clear up some of them and explain what you should memorize instead.

There have already been five avalanche fatalities in (South) Tyrol this season. Unfortunately, because where there is snow and mountains, there are also avalanches - no matter what time of year.

Whether it's an avalanche or a fall into a crevasse: For many mountain rescuers, the most strenuous time of the year is about to begin again. We explain who the people are who risk a lot for others on the mountain and why they sometimes cross the line.

Digging snow profiles and recording them correctly requires a great deal of experience, starting with the question of site selection through to determining the layers. However, reading standard recorded profiles is less complicated than it may seem at first glance. Lukas Ruetz explains it below using an example from the Sellrain. The profile discussed, like many others, can be found in the LAWIS database of the Austrian avalanche warning services and all notations correspond to those used there. Other organizations sometimes use slightly different forms, but the basic principles and the symbols for the grain shape remain the same.

Climbing race bindings also have their raison d'être for weight-optimized ski tourers with a not too aggressive skiing style and without the option of adjusting the release values.

Blocking the front cheek is always a topic of discussion. Some may block rather carelessly, others think more about it - but the question still arises: when, why and how do you block "correctly"?

Some of the descriptions in this article are linguistically abstract and may be difficult to understand without holding something analog in your hand. I am trying to make the whole thing more or less tangible for low-tech newbies, even if some things are taken for granted by experienced colleagues. Recommendation: A cozy evening at home where you can see some of the points in this article for yourself on a "living object".

The Gaiskogel is very suitable for the start of the season thanks to the shady cirque in the upper part and the piste support on the lower half of the tour, or even when the snow conditions are poor, as they unfortunately still are at the moment. The tour is currently possible, but if you don't want to climb the piste for training reasons, you can of course take a shortcut with the lift.

Lukas Ruetz, born in 1993, from St. Sigmund in the Tyrolean Sellraintal, collects a good 200,000 meters of ascent altitude per season, almost exclusively in his immediate home mountains. On his blog, Lukas reports eloquently and informatively about his tours, be it typical Sellrain standard routes or steep first ascents, to the delight of his considerable readership. The young and tradition-conscious ski tourer is an active member of the mountain rescue service and an observer for the Tyrolean avalanche warning service. He is usually only accompanied on tour by his dog.

With the start of the 2015/16 season, the scale-like impressions in the one or other ascent track will make you wonder which reptile used the path before. The newly evolved species is called "Profoilius fischeri" in Linnaeus' nomenclature and has recently become commercially available. I have been using the Profoil for a season now. The following is my experience of the climbing foil, which declares war on the conventional climbing skin.