Perfect powder snow days are not only rare, but also difficult to predict. However, this does not explain why some freeriders seem to have leased the "luck" of catching the best days, while others always get snow that has been blown away. For perfect days, you usually need nothing less than the perfect mix: enough fresh snow, a reasonable avalanche situation, good visibility, little activity, good terrain, etc.
If you don't show up at the right time, you have to ski the snow that's left!
Most perfect days are announced in advance - and you can find all the information quickly, easily and free of charge on the internet, provided you know where and how to look. Similar to the 3x3 scheme for assessing avalanche danger, powder research starts with general information: Weather forecast, snow and avalanche report. With the help of increasingly detailed and small-scale information, the areas or tours in question are narrowed down more and more.
Here we present a forecast scheme that can help you find your way through the internet data jungle. Most good freeride days can be recognized with the help of this scheme, but some remain a matter of luck. Then it's a game of poker - and all forecasts contain a probability of error, because everything can turn out differently.
"Those who plan better are more likely to be wrong!" Werner Munter
1. ROUGH FORECAST WEATHER MODELS AND WEATHER FORECASTS
Weather forecasts predict the weather development over the next few days. In stable high pressure situations, the forecast can be accurate for a period of several days. If the situation is difficult to assess, the local weather situation and the amount of new snow are often very difficult to predict and the inaccuracy of the weather forecast is then often very high. Thanks to the published forecasts or weather maps, you already know which areas will be hit by precipitation or sunshine. Most weather models are available to Internet users free of charge, e.g. at wetterzentrale.de or meteoblue.com. The weather maps show the amount of precipitation, wind and pressure conditions as well as temperatures and cloud cover forecasts. If you want to save yourself the time-consuming task of interpreting the maps, you can read the interpreted data from these models as a weather report from many weather services. The fact that the weather forecasts sometimes differ greatly from one another is due to the fact that the different weather models deliver different results. Particular attention should then be paid to the contradictions when comparing the weather reports. The resolution of the different weather models must also be taken into account. Some treat the Alps as a small mountain range with an average height of 2000 m - without taking the valleys and peaks into account. This may be sufficient for rough forecasts for very large areas, but of course not for a reliable Alpine weather report. The more the relief of an area is structured, the smaller and more detailed the weather report must be in order to do justice to the special features of the terrain. Some mountain weather reports, such as the PowderGuide weather service or MeteoSwiss, are produced on the basis of very detailed models, which is why their forecasts are very reliable.
The new snow forecast
The new snow forecast is one of the most important planning tools for freeriders. The forecasts provide information about the expected amount of fresh snow for a certain period of time. These forecasts are usually updated daily or even several times a day. Reliability stands and falls with the resolution of the weather models. Some special features are almost impossible to forecast: In extremely congested locations, sometimes twice the forecast amount of fresh snow can be achieved, while particularly sheltered leeward locations sometimes come up almost empty-handed. Nevertheless, new snow forecasts are an excellent tool for obtaining a rough overview of the expected amounts of new snow for a large area. You can find a high-resolution and reliable fresh snow forecast at PowderGuide.com - Fresh snow forecast. A fresh snow forecast for all mountains worldwide (with highly fluctuating reliability) can be found at snow-forecast.com
NOW SNOW RADAR
Precipitation radars installed on mountains show the intensity of precipitation at a certain point in time in different colors. However, rain, hail or snow cannot be distinguished in the published radar images and films. The radars can also be affected by the terrain, meaning that reliable overall coverage is not (yet) guaranteed in the Alps. The radar images and, above all, the radar films show not only the intensity but also the direction in which precipitation cells are moving. They are therefore an important tool for a powder forecast.NIEDER SCHLAGSRADARE:
- Vorarlberg: Landeswarnzentrale - Wetterradar Valluga (Arlberg)
- Switzerland: Meteoschweiz
- South Tyrol/Trentino: Hydrografisches Amt Bozen
- France: Meteogroup
- Europe: MeteoX
GOOGLE EARTH, GOOGLE MAPS AND DIGITAL MAPS
The Google Earth and Maps services are a relatively new offering with ever-increasing possibilities. Google Maps offer rough topographical maps with fast navigation options for almost any area of the world and are particularly suitable for searching for places and travel routes. Google Earth usually offers very good aerial images in which the terrain, but also ski lifts, huts and slopes are recognizable. With the help of these images, the user can get an overview of new tours and descents in previously unknown terrain. The impression is supplemented by lots of pictures, videos, GPS data and other information linked by other users or service providers. For example, all the lifts in Switzerland can be displayed at the click of a mouse.
Despite these diverse options, caution is advised. It is not uncommon for altitude or location information to slip or simply be incorrect. If you are unsure, it makes sense to double-check with the help of the tried-and-tested analog map on paper.
Large-scale topographic maps are indispensable for orientation on the mountain, but bad weather and wind can drive users of paper maps to despair in the terrain. This is why the maps are often also available as digital editions. On some digital maps, the steepness of the slopes can be read off thanks to different coloring. They are suitable for printing out and preparing at home. Fully digitized maps offer additional possibilities: e.g. the creation of routes that can be saved on GPS devices. This makes navigation considerably easier. Some of the digital maps are also available free of charge on a large scale from surveying offices or from the Swiss Alpine Club, for example: these allow free navigation throughout Switzerland. The scale can be changed, ski routes are marked and tour recommendations and walking times to the Alpine Club huts are integrated.
- Switzerland (and Liechtenstein): Federal Office of Topography or Swiss Alpine Club
- Germany: Bavaria viewer at vermessung.bayern.de or geodaten.bayern.de
- Austria: Geodata portal of the Austrian federal states geoland.at offers large-format maps and additional aerial images. The Tyrolean Spatial Information System (Tiris) offers very good maps, aerial images and special information for winter sports enthusiasts such as slope and exposure maps.
- Italy: Portale Cartografico Nazionale (requires free plug-in; only in Italian and Spanish)
- France: IGN (Institut Geographique National) (partly in German)
- Slovenia: Geodetski institut Slovenije (partly in English)
