Obergurgl

A user question has reached the WeatherBlog: How many days per winter is there snow in Obergurgl? Where can you find data on this? We are always happy to receive questions and especially those that we can answer to some extent! The weather is not very Christmassy, with little snow and too warm, so we prefer to think about other things and today we are looking at weather data from Obergurgl.

What do you do when winter doesn't really want to start, there is little fresh snow and the temperatures are actually too warm? Exactly, you take various Alpine Club maps, two good friends and other literature (e.g. Panico Ski Touring Guide Ötztal Alps) to start planning for spring at the end of December. Seeing something new again and experiencing nature in a different way was the aim of our short Ötztal ski crossing, which we undertook from 10. April to 13. April 2022.

A pearl is a solid, often round foreign body made of mother-of-pearl that grows in certain pearl-forming mussels, or more rarely snails. Powder is... hm... Snow, of considerable depth and little disturbed by external influences. Powder, you want to dive into it, glide through it and emerge again, and so on and so forth, for all eternity, Kaiserschmarrn. And powder pearls? They are moving bodies in mountains of powder.

Artificial snow has become an integral part of Alpine skiing and many ski resorts routinely cover the majority of their slopes with snow. When all the artificial snow melts in spring, the meltwater enters the water cycle. But what exactly is in it?

In the last ContestHappening for this season, we take a brief look at the last major 4* FWQ event in the Alps, which unfortunately had to be canceled after three starters. With the FWQ season coming to an end, almost all participants for next season's FWT have already been confirmed.

Online registration for the free SnowHow Camps opened yesterday. The camps provide avalanche knowledge for beginners and slightly advanced freeriders and ski tourers in a practical day and evening lectures.

Season finale of the contest season in good but not quite easy conditions: The last 4* contest of the qualifier season in Obergurgl once again decided who will be seen as a rookie in the Freeride World Tour next year.

Contrary to the trend in recent years towards rather mediocre contest conditions at all events, the Freeride World Tour in Haines was lucky once again: blower powder on a beautiful face provided the basis for a contest worth seeing. Only an avalanche on Reine Barkered's run marred the impression a little. Sammy Luebke (USA) and Shannan Yates (USA) won the snowboarder category, while Loïc Collomb-Patton (FRA) and Arianna Tricomi (ITA) won the skier category.

There were no contests in the German-speaking Alpine region last week. The World Tour is waiting for the start in Alaska and Obergurgl is coming up for the qualifiers.

The final of the Open Faces and the European FWQs took place on March 21, 2015 in Obergurgl-Hochgurgl in Ötztal.

On the last weekend of March 2014, the Obergurgl/Hochgurgl ski resort was the venue for one of the most impressive and best organized freeride contests we have ever seen.

As my colleague Powder Orakel delivers new updates practically every day in the wonderfully productive pre-Christmas period, I would like to take this opportunity to look at the somewhat more timeless nature of snow.