The months between snowfall and snowfall

Between lack of snow, south-facing congestion and growth

The cold months are here. Even though winter in the northern Alps has been rather subdued so far, it has already snowed heavily in the south. Now, however, winter is also beginning in the northern Alps. A good reason to pause for a moment and take a look at PowderGuide itself: How is the season going so far, how are coverage and usage developing and what can you expect in the coming months?

Full speed ahead instead of a hammock: what we did this summer

The summer was anything but quiet at PowderGuide. While everyone was out biking, climbing, surfing and alpine touring(including us), preparations for the new winter season were going on in the background. Content was continued, structures sharpened and the team expanded. The aim was not only to be present at the start of the season in terms of content, but also to be technically and organizationally well positioned.

Figures & reach: a strong start to the season

At the start of the season, particularly in November, there were already clear changes in the number of visits to our website. At the same time, our community continues to grow not only in the Alpine region, but also increasingly internationally.

A lot has also happened on social media: our presence is slowly making an impact with over 35,000 followers on Instagram and over 10,000 followers on Facebook .
The growth on Instagram is particularly striking: since the start of the season, we have more than doubled our number of followers from around 18,000. The most hits come from cities such as Munich, Innsbruck, Vienna, Zurich, Milan and even London.

By comparison, we were able to gain less than 7,000 new followers in the entire previous season. The current increase is therefore much stronger.

There are also clear effects in terms of reach and interaction:

• Consistent posting, especially via Stories, ensures more clicks on Facebook and Instagram

• At the start of the season, a PowderAlert achieved almost 700,000 views and over 10,000 likes

• In total, we recorded almost 5 million views via our channels and 99,000 interactions with our content from the start of the season to the end of the year

A look at the demographic data shows that our readership continues to be predominantly male, with a focus on the 25-34 age group. However, we also have a readership of 65+, which we are very pleased about and is not a matter of course!

Additional reach continues to be provided by the YouTube channel for gear reviews and, more recently, occasional placements in the Google News Feed, which regularly generate noticeable spikes in traffic.

But why are the hits increasing?
The increase is no coincidence. Several factors come together here:

• Collaborations and campaigns attract additional attention

• We are not just English or German, PowderGuide texts are also translated into French, Spanish, Czech and Italian by contributors to our site

• The number of hits on the weather pages has increased throughout the year

• Early snowfall in the preseason has boosted the condition reports in particular

• PowderAlerts are more popular than ever and are diligently shared among friends, certainly as hype for the snow of the coming days

• External links, for example through collaborations with Gipfelbuch.ch and Skitourenguru.ch, show measurable effects

An observation on the current season: The early and sometimes heavy snowfall in the southern Alps seems to have drawn additional readers from these regions to PowderGuide.

What you can expect this season

There will also be good news in the coming months. The plan is to further expand our social media presence:

• Conditions reports and current weather maps will be linked several times a week

• Hopefully post significantly more PowderAlerts than in the snow-poor previous season

• PowderGrams (more on this later in the season), short news and smaller articles with close links to social media

• Expansion of the Conditions Reports to include new areas and regions, hopefully beyond Europe

You are also very welcome to write a short report for the ConditionReports if you had a great or not-so-great day in the mountains and want to share it with others.

In addition, interaction with the community will be further strengthened through targeted campaigns, cooperations and raffles.

Gear reviews will also remain a fixed component. Independent, detailed and practical, they provide real added value for you and at the same time give partners a credible platform.

Unfortunately, women are still significantly underrepresented in our community. We would like to change this - and we need your help!
That's why we're asking you: Which topics would you like to see more of?
Let us know in the comments what content you're interested in or what you'd like to see more of here in future!

I'll be giving you insights and updates on PowderGuide from time to time during the current season. Stay tuned and be curious!

Management & Editing

- Totti Lingott - Management | Cooperations

- Steffen Kruse - Management | Cooperations

- Theresa Schranner - Editorial management

Weather & Snow

- Sebastian Müller - Weather Service | WeatherBlog

- Lea Hartl - WeatherBlog

- Martin Svejkovsky - Snow of Tomorrow

- Michael Steger - SnowChase | Weather Service

Conditions Reports

- German Whehinger - Conditions Reports

- Lukas Zögernitz - Conditions Reports | Shop

- Malte Schulz - Conditions Reports | TVBs AT

Tests & Equipment

- Lorenzo Rieg - Equipment | Tests

- Sebastian Siep - Ski Workshop | Gear Reviews

- Pascal Schindler - Gear of the Week

Social Media, Video & Events

- Antonia Paulus - Social Media | Events

- Alex Zolotykh - Social Media | Videos

- Sarah-Louise Schaary - Social Media | Events

- Hannes Hemper - Videos of the Week

- Heli Hofmann - PowderGuide video project

- Timo Mcvan - Events

Snowboard & Splitboard

- Patrick Wehowsky

- Till Mangesius

- Tobi Leistenschneider

Other areas

- Klara Stang - Partnerships Alpine Clubs

- Johannes Wolf - IT | Newsletter | Film tours

- Johanna Korte - Translations | English Website

- Adrian Sauter - French website | Safety

- Lydia Knappe - Safety topics | SnowFlurry

- Anselm Köhler - Snow depth prediction game

- Robin Dratwa - News