Julische Alpen

"Five Rings to rule them all, Five Rings to find them, Five Rings to bring them all, and in the Powder bind them." - There is fresh snow in the Olympic region

Well, after warming up with the alert limit in Alert 7, Ullr our favorite god finally gives us some real snow. The only downer: it snows the most where there is little snow and where the foundation of the snowpackis rather dangerous.

Enrico Mosetti is to me a local legend among the freeskiers of the Italian Julian Alps. Me, a bavarian Triestino, came to hear of him on a drive back home from a ski tour. My friends were talking about "Mose" doing this or that cool line, and then I found out about him through Instagram. Soon though, on another day we arrived at Sella Nevea at the parking for the western side of the valley, the one without ski lifts, and there I saw him for the first time, and he was hard to mistake with his characteristic extravagant style. He was first to start the skinning and likely first to descend as well. I here in this interview try to find out more about him and to introduce this PowderPeople to you!

For several years now, a handful and a half of friends have been getting together once a winter to explore more or less distant mountain regions on skis and splitboards, but also to get to know other countries and cultures. They have travelled far to Romania, Kamchatka or Armenia, but have also travelled closer, for example to Ticino. This time, in winter 2023/24, the destination was chosen by lottery for the Julian Alps in Slovenia, with the additional requirement of 'winter camping'. The fresh snow forecast maps on PowderGuide.com were particularly colourful for the start and everyone was full of anticipation. But things turned out a little differently than planned... read the first part to find out how the first few days went!

For the fourth Advent, PowderGuide.com is organising another big raffle - just in time for the big snowfalls over Christmas! And this time, appropriately enough, it's also coming to Slovenia. Because that's where the next lucky winner will be travelling to! Here you can win a weekend ski pass for freeriding in Vogel or a guide to explore the Julian Alps on a ski tour. Naturally including a hotel and not forgetting the matching new Elan Ripstick skis (developed and designed with Glen Plake!) and a tour of the ski factory for your new skis!

When Ullr takes a rest from work in the evening, he treats himself and us to a Southern Comfort, because he feels at home in the Dolce Vita and invites us to take another trip to the Southern Alps.

After December was characterised by a succession of snowfalls from the west to south-west until the end of December, and accordingly warm, and even January started like this, we are now returning to normality and slowly having to say goodbye to the record snow depths at altitude, but also to the lack of snow below 1500m. Thank Ullr, because the valleys between 1000-1500m are still feeding off their early-season cushion and below 1200-1400m there is hardly anything possible away from the artificial snow.

This week we introduce you to the next round of our PowderGuide team. Sebastian earns our PowderGuide weather, Johannes has been with PowderGuide for a while and takes care of the IT and Toni, Josh and Timo rock social media.

We visit the Val Saisera, a jewel of the Julian Alps, and here we present the tour to the Forcella Lavinal dell'Orso: one of the three classic gullies in the valley. Last season wasn't so great in terms of snow conditions, until April brought us two good snowfalls and some beautiful tours. On the 10th of April 2022, we found 30 cm of powder, without wind and in cold temperatures, and history could repeat itself.

After a small Italian low pressure system brought between 20 and 30 cm of fresh snow to the south (even just above the alert limit in the Julian Alps), it's now time for some fresh snow in the northwest.

A leeward cyclone has formed in the Gulf of Genoa and is showering the Alps with snow from the south. The general weather situation remains strongly zonal and therefore mild and humid. Strong storm lows are moving through northern Europe towards the weekend, with plenty of mild winds and wet precipitation. Their fronts will also determine the weather on the northern side of the Alps. However, there is reason to look forward to the new week!

After it rained up to almost 3000m and the Swiss zero degree limit climbed to 3764m on 1.1.22 (statistically likely for mid/end June), it is now winter again. And it's snowing on our boulder-hard frozen ground... Hopefully it won't be a Holiday on Ice week now that the swamp will freeze through. There's just enough for an alarm in the north, and more interesting amounts in the south-east.