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PowderAlert 16 2018/19 | The last Unicorn!

Powder in May is a shy magical creature that only a few people are still interested in

by Lars Oelmann • 05/03/2019
The last of its kind. Confucius says: "Powder in May, passes quickly." For all those who want to read the last official PowderGuide Alarm with pathos, pining and kitsch and think back to a pretty good season (or want to take themselves back to the Christmas TV program of the late 80s), here is the soundtrack to the Alarm. PowderGuide goes multimedia!

Alert period and areas

Ullr is sending its last arctic greeting for the time being to the northern slopes of the Alps, from the Bernese Oberland to the Dachstein. It will probably also be wet in the southeast, especially towards Slovenia, but this is not really alarm-worthy as it will remain too warm there.

The alarm will last until Sunday evening.

Snow line

Starting from 1200 to 1800 from northwest to east on Saturday and then dropping rapidly far down on Saturday afternoon. The announced amounts will come from 1000-1200m in the northern traffic jam, but in the traffic jam you can possibly start or leave from 800m on a meadow.

Saturday night and Sunday morning it snows all the way down, so it's really fresh for early May.

More track work on the higher tours!

More track work required on the higher tours!

LH
LR

More track work required on the higher tours!

LH
LR

Wind

This will be quite strong, but not a storm, as the Arctic outbreaks tend to be rather tame in May. Ullr is slowly losing out to the sun. That's why there'll be powder further up and less on the main ridge than in the Nordstau.

The amounts

Nothing apocalyptic, but it should still be quite nice, at least where there's still a base underneath.

From the Bernese Oberland to the Dachstein there'll be 25-40cm of quite cold fresh snow. In the perfect Nordstau and generally in the east from the Salzburgerland onwards, 50cm may well appear. The answer to the question of whether it will be 60cm somewhere depends on whether the models underestimate the accumulation and the formation of showers, because the flow is actually really good and the models spit out very little snow over the course of the 36 hours and only give clear signals for the cold front on Saturday afternoon/evening. A shower track would have to hit perfectly for more than 50 cm, which is not predictable.

Where should I go?

One last time to put the skis in the car and ski powder before there are only high altitude tours. On Saturday, I'd wait and see what the snow front does, because you can't see anything at the top and it's still raining or glopping in the trees.

On Sunday, you can go on a tour in the trees or on the meadow if you know that there's still a base there. Without a base, you really have to check Sunday morning to see if there's enough at your favorite meadow measuring station.

On Monday, all of Ullr's disciples can head for the last open ski areas further up and glaciers. Tuesday, depending on the crowds, as well, or go on a high powder tour.

Mid-term

Not so unexciting for May, but the oracle is still going on a summer break. It remains quite cool and maybe something will happen further up next weekend. But you should stop when it's at its best and so Ullr and I say goodbye for 2018/19.

Powder to the people!

Your Oracle

This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

Show original (German)

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