Berner Oberland

The low pressure system that is making this weekend so inhospitable will really get going from today (15.4.2012) and in the south of the Upper Valais / in the Aosta Valley, – where there has already been over 30cm – there will be some more. But, and this is more interesting for most people now, it's also snowing where it's based, namely in the north. The direction of flow is slowly changing and by the evening it will have turned from east to northeast and then the flow may even turn to north.

The Lötschental now enjoys a big fan crowd and yet things are a lot more relaxed here than in many other freeride areas on this and the other side of the Lötschberg, which also forms the cultural border between the Valais and Bernese Oberland. The later in the year you make the pilgrimage here, the fewer freeriders and therefore potential competitors you will encounter. There is a good reason for this, as the varied terrain around the Lauchernalp is mostly south-facing and therefore anything but a powder guarantee in spring. Turning away from the sunny side of the Valais is the Bernese territory: the shadowy world of the deep-cut Gasteretal valley, which hides some of the best and most easily accessible steep descents. However, there is one small drawback to the story; but more on that after the descent...

What does a true freerider want from her favorite? Right – fresh pow. And what does Ullr give us? Nordstau and fresh powder.

No sooner have I hung my snorkel from the Dumpicane© on the wall than the next alarm goes off! After the Dumpicane© has put even my rather optimistic estimates in their place and delivered over 150 cm of snow (together with the snow from the two days before, the SLF says up to 2 m!), Santa Dump is now at the door and wants to open his northern bag. Praise Ullr! (Sorry to the southern side of the Alps, you'll have to go on suffering).

First of all, the verification (although there is still some to come this evening): With some stations over 70 cm where there was no snow before and many regions with more than 40 cm of fresh snow, from Valais to Glarnerland, the values of the last PowderAlert matched pretty well until today. Even in the east in the Arlberg corner, some stations like the Diedamskopf have stalked the 40 cm total snow depth and should make it by tonight. Further to the east, what I warned about has happened, as the upslope flow meant that there was not much there and the negative centimetres are making themselves felt.

While there is still no basis for carefree off-piste powder skiing at higher altitudes, lower-lying ski resorts are usually too flat to blow the first sprays of the season from untouched slopes. Hanna Finkel took a small group and the thick poles to the Schilthorn to check out the freeride suitability of this small but beautiful ski resort.

Complete and utter skitour? At 4274 m, the Finsteraarhorn is the highest mountain in the Bernese Alps. It dominates the panoramas of the whole of central and eastern Switzerland!" That doesn't just sound incredible; it is! That's why the Finsteraarhorn was at the top of our hit list of Swiss 4000-metre peaks.