Schweiz

Normally we are happy about every alarm, but here the future looks rather sad. Will winter soon end again after the great start? More on this in the medium term. And before that, there will be more snow in the north. Anyone who still wants to take a vacation should seriously think about it.

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.

At 2341 m above sea level, the Alvier is one of the higher peaks in the St.Gallen Rhine Valley. The summit is easily accessible from (almost) all sides. As it has no larger neighbors in the immediate vicinity, you can enjoy a fantastic view from the summit. Including the castle in Vaduz.

When the conditions are right in spring, the Couloir du Pissoir is a more than worthwhile excursion destination in a high alpine setting. Our reporter Jan not only provides a tour description, but also - kissed by the spring muse - a poem about the tour.

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

Today, Wednesday, will be very sunny for the most part thanks to the influence of intermediate highs, and any remaining hillside clouds should clear quickly. Thursday will be cloudy with the arrival of a warm front from the west. In the western Alps, it will probably be cloudy from the morning onwards, while it will remain clearer in the east in the morning.

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.

One man's sorrow is another man's joy, as the saying goes. This was also the case with the last PowderAlert, or rather the heavy snowfalls, which not only kept the avalanche warnings busy, but also the civil protection. The Davos department of the PowderGuide editorial team was evacuated due to the avalanche danger and had to leave their home. How do you feel when something like that happens? Steffen reports:

The Winter Report 2016/17 of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF is online as a pdf. The review of the weather, snow cover and avalanche danger was already published in summer 2017, and the report has now been supplemented with a description of selected avalanche accidents.

The SLF's seasonal report on the 2016/17 avalanche winter in Switzerland is also available online. The report contains detailed information on the weather, snow cover and avalanche risk.

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.

For the film "La Liste", Swiss freeskier Jérémie Heitz set himself an ambitious goal: Within two years, he wanted to conquer 15 of the most impressive steep slopes in the Alps on skis - at a speed that would make him a pioneer.