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PowderAlert 5 2016/17 | Ullr's Christmas present.

Oh it's snowing...how strange in December.

by Lars Oelmann 12/18/2016
Christmas 2027: The avalanche warning services have to surprisingly end summer mode because it actually snows in December! Well, it's not quite that far yet, but after the third bad early winter, we are surprised that something actually happens again before January.

Areas:

Ullr seems to be losing the battle for the Alps - slowly but surely - but in his rearguard action with climate change (or extremely annoying permanent weather conditions) he at least remembers to put the snow where there is already a base, namely the Southern Alps from Piedmont to Ticino.

The snow line:

Not a problem, as it only slowly rises towards 1200-1500m during the precipitation and there was no snow below 1800-2000m anyway. It's difficult to say whether there will be enough snow in the trees somewhere by Wednesday morning to still be able to get in.

The wind:

Will be quite draughty and will therefore blow a lot. Be aware, especially in the areas with less thick bases, that everything underneath is likely to be converted and read the LLBs.

The volumes:

The boundaries of the core are very tight and small-scale displacements can have a big impact. At the moment, it looks like the largest volumes are from Gran Paradiso to Piedmont. Ticino, the French Maritime Alps, Monte Rosa and the Simplon could see similar amounts, but at the moment it looks like a little less. It definitely won't be anything further east in the Southern Alps and generally everywhere in the north. You can play it safe in the Turin Alps, the Italian-French border as far as Piedmont, whereby the Italian-French border is significantly higher and has benefited from the November snowfalls.

In the core, 50-80cm of snow should fall across the board, possibly up to 1m in isolated cases. In the neighboring areas it will be 20-60cm with the higher amounts towards the core area.

Where should I go?:

From Wednesday onwards, I would look for open ski resorts in the Italian-French border region on the main Alpine ridge (tip: there are also some in France), which had a base and are mostly above 2000m. Whether you want to hit the trees on Tuesday afternoon is up to your rock skis and powder lust, but I wouldn't advise it.

From the Christmas weekend onwards, I would go touring in the same area, as sunny and dry high-pressure weather will leave no crumb untouched next to the lifts and you might still find some powder.

Mid-term:

Oh, how dreary! Oh how dreary is the mid-term

Ullr is not here,

Make like Shakespeare and have a beer!

Seriously, even if we on PowderGuide don't like to get into the meteorological nettles with longer-term forecasts: I wouldn't count on an alarm before the new year.

Powder to the people!

Your oracle

Here's our snow height hint game for this alert.

This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

Show original (German)

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