Altschneeproblem

You could say that the weather gods didn't mean well with the new, old Snow&Safety Conference in Lech am Arlberg this year. Rain in Lech was not necessarily what freeriders and off-piste skiers had hoped for. On the other hand, it wasn't really about powder skiing but about risk management in the winter mountains. The conditions were indeed challenging for this and therefore anything but unsuitable.

In the avalanche bulletin, the typical avalanche problems are also indicated in the hazard description. While the avalanche danger answers the question "How high is the danger?", the avalanche problem gives an indication of "What is the problem?".

Snow crystals begin to change on their way from the cloud to the ground. Perhaps a layer of air is warmer and the crystal thaws slightly, or several crystals stick together to form large flakes. If it is windy, the fine branches of the crystals break off. Once they reach the ground, things don't calm down - that's when the changes really begin. For skiers, the decomposing and building transformation is crucial:

A few days with very poor snow quality and extremely high temperatures due to the foehn are behind us. With the right exposure, slope steepness and altitude, it was already possible to ski a preliminary firn stage.

Countless ideas and observations were put down on paper for the International Snow Science Workshop 2018. One of them was the result of a collaboration between Kristian Rath, an observer at the Bavarian LWD, and the Snow Sturgeon: A schematic overview map of the "core areas" of the ground-level weak layers in the Alpine region and their connection to the tree species distribution.

When it comes to snow, there are and have been various trends. All of them have brought progress and have given way to new trends. Meanwhile, one of them has been stuck in its own gears for years. A plea to finally take a common path out of this one.

In the current season, it was noticeably more dangerous in sunny areas than in shady ones. This is due to a special form of weak layer formation known as the "cold on warm hazard pattern".

Snow cover without relevant weak layers is very rare, especially in the inner Alpine regions in early and high winter. In the current season, we are seeing this constellation in large parts of the Alpine arc. The snow cover is often compact and the old snow is stable.

The snow conditions are good for the time of year across the entire Alpine arc. Thanks to regular, quite remarkable fresh snowfalls. Intense fresh snowfall significantly increases the risk of avalanches. Why is that?

One winter morning a good three years ago, I made friends with fear. Since then, it has become a cherished companion.

The Working Group of Austrian Avalanche Warning Services has published its seasonal report for winter 2016/17. As always, the report contains not only statistical evaluations of the past avalanche winter, but also many detailed and impressively illustrated reports on specific accidental avalanches. In addition to the LWDs of the Austrian federal states, the SLF, the LWD Bavaria and the LWD South Tyrol are also represented with guest contributions.

While the first big snowfalls of the season are causing a stir here in Germany, dozens of volunteers are mercilessly trampling the first snow of the winter in Aspen. Shoes and trouser legs wrapped in Ducktape, they march through the freshly snow-covered terrain to prevent the early season snow from becoming an old snow problem.