PowderGuide

For safety reasons, Mammut asks all customers who own a Generation 3.0 avalanche airbag to check the route of the deployment cable. The proper functioning of the avalanche airbag can only be guaranteed if the cable is properly installed.

Statistical key data on alpine accidents in 2017, presented by the Austrian Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety and the Alpine Police (BM.I): 283 people died in accidents in the Austrian Alps in 2017, 18 of them on ski tours, 13 while off-piste skiing and 27 while skiing/snowboarding on pistes and ski routes.

In the second edition of our Conditions Reporter interviews, Rinaldo Borra (username borrarinaldo) introduces himself: The long-time mountain guide and coffee lover lives in Grindelwald, but travels with his guests throughout the Alps.

The community of Conditions Reporters is a central part of PowderGuide. After all these years, it's high time we got to know our CRers a little better! Over the next few weeks, we will be introducing some of our community members in short interviews. We'll start with Chris Berner: The ex-windsurfer is now back on the water in a solid state, preferably on the Titlis.

As in previous years, there are many technical innovations in ski touring boots. More and more manufacturers are coming onto the market with ever lighter models that are still very suitable for downhill skiing. One of the most interesting new models, the Hoji Pro Tour from Dynafit, won an ISPO Award but could only be admired in reality to a limited extent due to the lack of a Dynafit stand.

The new products in the ski sector are very limited this year, as is the number of manufacturers still represented at ISPO. Amer Sports (Atomic, Salomon, Armada) was no longer at the trade fair this year and other companies are also exercising more and more restraint in terms of their stand presence.

PowderGuide was able to take part in an advanced training course for SLF observers in Davos at the beginning of December. Among other things, it was about understanding the different danger levels. During an exercise, linguistic phrases and certain information had to be assigned to the different levels. In our article about the course, we recreated the exercise as an online quiz. As there was so much interest, here is a short evaluation of the results.

Unaccompanied refugee minors go skiing with a Tyrolean school class: with the "Welcome to our world" project, the initiators want to teach the young refugees about Tyrolean culture. The short film about the UMF ski project is now available online and gives an impression of how the project works.

Winter is already in full swing and Ullr has already given us plenty of presents this December. Of course, we don't want to be left out just in time for Christmas!

Now that the current winter has got off to a brilliant start, at least compared to previous years, and has already brought us snow right down to the valleys, Christmas may come as less of a surprise to some than when the tulips are blooming in the garden. Nevertheless, we would like to give you some inspiration for last-minute gifts. As usual, the PowderGuide editorial team presents its Christmas wishes and gift tips.

We are happy to announce: The PowderGuide weather service is back! Fresh snow, sunshine, SnowGrid, text forecast all now also on PG 3.0!

Powder all year round? For all those who can't get enough of the white rush at home, there's another edition of the powder calendar for 2018.