Here in Switzerland winter has started with a vengeance. Many areas of the Swiss Alps have 200% of the average annual snowfall for the time of year and we’ve been out enjoying the great early season conditions. There are still some rocks hidden just under the snow surface in many places but in general there is plenty of powder to be had if you go looking, definitely more then average for the time of year. Until now the weather has played ball too, it’s snowed during the week and Saturday mornings have been dawning bright and sunny giving us perfect early season powder days. Here’s hoping the season continues like this.
So far we’ve checked out the resorts of Davos and Lenzerheide this winter. Davos has a good base layer of snow and each snowfall just makes things better. We were still hitting the odd rock there two weeks ago but surprisingly few for the time of year. Another snowfall should see ideal freeriding conditions.
Davos
Davos
Davos
Lenzerheide’s snowcover was a little low higher up on the mountain, what snow was there was severely wind-blown leaving bare patches in some places and very slabby/crusty sections in others. There was really good powder to be found too, but you needed to know where to look for it and be careful of the rocks at higher altitude. The slabby snow was very unstable and we saw 5 small to medium sized slab avalanches all within a hundred metres of a ski piste over the course of the day. Some of the avalanches had even travelled as far as the edge of the piste. Just goes to show that just because you are going to ride just beside the piste avalanche awareness is still vitally important! Lower down on the mountain the powder was in a word… PERFECT. We had a few semi-hidden and totally untracked powder fields to play with which left us grinning from ear to ear. In general Lenzerheide had very mixed but very fun conditions. But, it could do with another 50cm of snow high up on the mountain.
First tracks at Lenzerheide
A small slap released next to the piste in Lenzerheide. This was the smallest of 5 that we saw during the course of the day. Slope angle less than 35deg, avalanche risk level=2!
In the next two weeks the remaining Swiss resorts will open their lift systems. The long term forecast is showing lots more snow over the next week or so. The avalanche risk will quite likely increase in the coming days. I expect the first sunny day we’ll get after the next series of weather systems will be a great but potentially dangerous powder day.
The Swiss Alpine Adventure Avalanche course is going ahead on Saturday 11th of December. Numbers will be finalised with the guides on Monday Dec 6th. Anyone trying to get on the course after this date will need to mail me directly (info (at) swissalpineadventure.com) to see if it’s possible to still take part.
Take care and enjoy our Alpine playground.
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