Airolo

Severin's life revolves around snowboarding. Here he tells us how he went from two boards to one and what the everyday life of a professional snowboarder is like.

The International Snow Science Workshop (ISSW) brings together scientists and practitioners from a wide range of snow-related fields every two years. New findings and research results are presented in various thematic blocks - so-called sessions. We break the whole thing down into more or less digestible morsels and summarize the sessions of the ISSW2018 for you every two weeks.

A trip report from 1904 marks the start of a new series on PowderGuide: this season, the Austrian Alpine Club and the "Alpenwort" project at the University of Innsbruck are making some selected historical texts available to PowderGuide readers. The "Skifahrt auf das Blindenhorn" by Henry Hoek comes from the Alpine Club Yearbook of 1904. Henry Hoek is considered a ski pioneer and is one of the most influential alpine writers of his time. He also published the world's first ski guide in 1908: Skifahrten im Südlichen Schwarzwald (Skiing in the Southern Black Forest).

The Bedretto Valley just behind Airolo needs no introduction to the touring community. With excellent transport links, it offers a huge reservoir of touring opportunities on both sides of the valley. And since south-facing snowstorms have been a reliable part of the winter weather repertoire, this valley is blessed with impressive amounts of snow every year. Of course, these two facts ensure that the Bedretto is very busy, but fortunately the crowds here also move along the red lines on the ski touring map. Once you leave them, it quickly becomes quiet and usually rather steep...

Everyone has been to the Leventina. But most people have probably just whizzed through without thinking about touring, by train or on the highway. But if you've ever looked out of the window in winter, you might have guessed that there is some wonderful downhill terrain at higher altitudes in the valley. Especially when there is plenty of snow on the southern slopes of the Alps, this region is also a hot tip for snow addicts from the north of the Alps.