The 2012/2013 winter report of the Austrian LWDs is well worth reading and can be downloaded free of charge in the form of the "Annual Report of the Austrian Avalanche Warning Services".
Every autumn, the Austrian avalanche warning services publish their review and final assessment of the past winter: accident figures and analyses as well as a compact, readable review of the weather and avalanche situation in the Austrian Alps. All fatal avalanche accidents are documented and analyzed in detail and placed in an explanatory context in relation to the prevailing weather and avalanche situation. As a particularly informative addition, the reader will find further up-to-date background articles on new developments and particularly relevant or explosive avalanche problems in the winter of 12/13. One example of this was the extremely unusual, wet and cold spring and the equally wet and cold early summer: the intensive precipitation not only caused massive flooding in many places, but also brought enormous amounts of fresh snow in some high Alpine locations. Very large avalanches in early summer were one such exceptional event. The central topic of the final chapter is the European Avalanche Danger Scale, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The initially controversial uniform hazard scale is now indispensable and has become a real success and export model, so that it is now used more or less worldwide. A comprehensive glossary of avalanche terms rounds off the 220-page annual report. Predicate: particularly suitable for downloading! Some sample pages from the content Here you can download the annual report...
