Österreich

A small high-pressure bridge has moved between a low over Scandinavia and one in the Aegean and is currently providing sunny, high-pressure weather in the Alps. Tomorrow, Thursday, a small disturbance will move through, bringing snow showers to the western Alps and some clouds to the east.

The Working Group of Austrian Avalanche Warning Services has published its seasonal report for winter 2017/18. As always, the report not only contains statistical evaluations of the past avalanche winter, but also many detailed and impressively illustrated analyses of specific accidental avalanches. In addition to the LWDs of the Austrian federal states, the SLF and the LWD South Tyrol are also represented with guest contributions. New this year: print version available from the Alpine Club store.

At the meteorological end of winter (March 1), it is now fittingly getting warmer again after the exceptionally cold last few days.

Statistical key data on alpine accidents in 2017, presented by the Austrian Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety and the Alpine Police (BM.I): 283 people died in accidents in the Austrian Alps in 2017, 18 of them on ski tours, 13 while off-piste skiing and 27 while skiing/snowboarding on pistes and ski routes.

Anyone who lives in the mountains is unlikely to be complaining about the lack of winter feeling at the moment - the villages at higher altitudes are covered in deep snow and the enormous snowfalls of the last few weeks, including the resulting road closures and avalanche damage, are still very much in evidence. However, as January has been very mild, the picture is very different in the lowlands.

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.

As of today, SNOWGRID maps from ZAMG for Austria and some neighboring parts of the Eastern Alps are available on PowderGuide. SNOWGRID is a high-resolution snowpack model that shows the spatial distribution of the snowpack in the terrain very well. We now have the current snow depth and the change in snow depth over the last 24 hours as a separate sub-category in the Weather/Snow section and are pleased to be able to offer this service together with ZAMG.

White Risk is a four-language, web-based avalanche prevention platform (www.whiterisk.ch) and consists of the EXPLORE, LEARN, TOUR and PRO modules. The platform is a comprehensive interactive reference work on avalanche awareness and also includes a tour planning tool (TOUR) with a link to the mobile app.

Both the Austrian avalanche warning services and the SLF have now made their full seasonal reports available to download online. In both countries, the warmer than average 2015/16 winter season only really began at the start of 2016. The number of fatal avalanche accidents was slightly below the long-term average. In Austria, 14 people lost their lives in avalanches last winter, compared to 20 in Switzerland.

This text is aimed at all those who like to take part in freeride camps, test days organized by magazines and ski brands, freeride days organized by safety equipment suppliers and state or private educational institutions or even ride-with-me offers advertised by professional freeskiers themselves. Who are you actually following into what can be high alpine terrain with all its alpine beauty and dangers? And what happens if something happens? Stephan Skrobar tries to sharpen your awareness of potential problems.

As every year, the Austrian Avalanche Warning Services have made last winter's report available for free download (pdf) just in time for the start of the new season. It's worth a look, if only for the many sobering pictures and accident reports. The report contains guest contributions from avalanche wardens from Bavaria, Slovenia and South Tyrol. We have summarized a few key facts.

Just in time for the meteorological start of spring, the weather is changing and the wintry weather of the last few days is being replaced by increasing high pressure.