Triebschnee

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.

Spring is unbeatable with the presentation of snow of all conceivable categories. We dedicate ourselves to two variations that have nothing to do with the common powder but somehow subjectively belong to powder.

For the coming weekend, there are warnings of a Föhn storm on the main Alpine ridge and the areas north of it - including Saharan dust. Almost every skier is familiar with foehn or foehn-like effects on the mountain. Especially those who like to stay in areas on the main Alpine ridge. But what does the downdraft do to the snow cover?

The indication of altitude in conjunction with avalanche problems and danger levels is the backbone of the avalanche warning. In most cases, the delineations are surprisingly accurate.

In an existing ascent track or on tracked slopes, the avalanche danger can be greater than on the same slope in untracked condition. What sounds absurd at first is easy to understand on closer inspection.

Some people may ask themselves: "Why wasn't it dangerous before the change in the weather in terms of the old snow problem? The weak layers were already pronounced before." The answer lies in the tension.

In order to avoid overlapping or merely restating the current situation - which has already been analyzed in detail in the WeatherBlog, in PowderAlert and by the avalanche warning services - we turn to other topics.

The assessment of the avalanche situation on a large scale is carried out for us by the situation report. We have to use this basis to assess the local hazard potential ourselves. This can be very easy today, very difficult tomorrow and hardly possible the day after tomorrow.

There have already been five avalanche fatalities in (South) Tyrol this season. Unfortunately, because where there is snow and mountains, there are also avalanches - no matter what time of year.

After the first powder days of winter 2013/14 and high-pressure weather, the weather will become more unstable again at the weekend.

After an Irish Italian low forced the western Freride squadron to make a surprising start to the weekend fog, winter is now also arriving in the east. The snow cover in Switzerland now leaves little to be desired for November on the base side and there are hopes for more.

The WeatherBlog is currently located in an area of the world, somewhere between so-called Styria and so-called Carinthia, where there is only sometimes and even then only shaky, minute-by-minute free Internet. As the weather forecast by looking out of the window only works to a limited extent, we leave the current events, if they are relevant in terms of powder, to our colleague the Oracle.