Schneeprofil

A few days with very poor snow quality and extremely high temperatures due to the foehn are behind us. With the right exposure, slope steepness and altitude, it was already possible to ski a preliminary firn stage.

Despite the warmer temperatures in the fine weather phase, the snow surface on shady slopes remained mostly loose. On the other hand, slopes exposed to strong sunlight - especially at lower altitudes - became damp on the surface and a cover could form due to cooling.

The great early winter conditions south of the Inn are continuing. There is now another 20 cm of fresh powder locally. Avalanche conditions, snow quantity and snow quality are in an optimal range for early December.

This week, our newly acquired snow rummager repeats the confusion of symbols, abbreviations and numbers that can be found in a typical snow profile. If you know how, you can read all sorts of things from such a graphic and you don't always have to dig yourself to get an overview of the snow cover at a particular location. There's also a new profile from the Sellrain, so you can put your new knowledge into practice right away!

In the Southern and Central Alps there is often already a very thick snow cover. Weak layers that have been built up (old snow problem) can only be found on glaciers directly on the glacier ice. In other words, where the snow from early fall has remained. Otherwise, the snowpack structure is very good - and will most likely remain so in the snow-rich regions.

Winter sports enthusiasts who enjoy being out in the open terrain benefit enormously from the free service of the daily avalanche situation report (LLB). During the winter months, Eliane Droemer found out how the situation report is created every day from over 200,000 pieces of data and observations in the terrain, what news there is from research and what experiences the team has in common during the first control flight of the 18/19 season with LWD Tirol in mid-December.

At first glance, snow profiles seem complicated. However, if you know a few basic terms, this impression is quickly put into perspective. But even if you can read profiles, it takes some practice to draw the relevant conclusions from them. The most important thing, however, is to be able to visualize the snow cover and its layering in the terrain. An example:

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.

The renaissance of the "snow profile for everyone" has long since begun. Anyone who wants to record or pass on their profiles can now purchase an elegant recording tool.

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".

Now that the current winter has got off to a brilliant start, at least compared to previous years, and has already brought us snow right down to the valleys, Christmas may come as less of a surprise to some than when the tulips are blooming in the garden. Nevertheless, we would like to give you some inspiration for last-minute gifts. As usual, the PowderGuide editorial team presents its Christmas wishes and gift tips.

Winter is here, as is the snow, and the Snow Sturgeon has also returned to the keyboard from his snow profile hole in the Western Alps. With reference to last season's SnowFlurry columns, we are recalling some of the terms that regularly appear there.