Lawinenkunde

Günter Schmudlach is the inventor, founder and programmer of the Swiss online portal Skitourenguru.ch. The avalanche report assesses the risk of countless ski touring routes in Switzerland and soon in the entire Alpine region on a daily basis. A highly innovative project, in our opinion. We spoke to Günter about Skitourenguru in general, his motivation and his vision for the future.

The Austrian Alpine Association is once again offering evening lectures to get in the mood for the ski season, where winter sports enthusiasts can update their avalanche knowledge.

From October 7 to 12, Innsbruck became the center of the world. The world of snow and avalanches. The International Snow Science Workshop was held for the first time in the "Capital of the Alps". A review of a successful week and a look ahead to interesting developments in avalanche prevention and accident management for winter sports enthusiasts:

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.

PowderGuide was born out of the desire to combine the fun of off-piste skiing with informed and professional risk management in order to ideally be able to spend a lifetime "off-piste". A few years ago, Jeremy Jones summed up this principle in the catchy phrase "live to ride another day".

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.

Sliding snow avalanches cannot be triggered by a regular additional load - neither as a skier nor as a blaster. Why is that the case?

The Austrian Alpine Association is once again offering evening lectures to get in the mood for the ski season, where winter sports enthusiasts can update their avalanche knowledge.

At a meeting in summer 2017, the European avalanche warning services decided on changes to the hazard level matrix and the nomenclature of avalanche sizes.