Avalanche Prediction Engine

Skitourenguru .ch is a fabulous resource that provides avalanche information based on a machine language model. Is is not perfect, but avalanche prediction will probably never be an exact science. In the meantime it provides ski touring enthusiasts in the Alps and Jura a huge amount of useful information.

The main focus is Switzerland, but the web site has become a go-to resource, with tens of thousands of active users and over 1000 ski tours covered from Switzerland alone.

Twice a day the site is updated with data from the authoritative SLF and uses daily avalanche forecasts from the past 19 years, covering over 5000 avalanche forecasts augmented with data on 1,800 severe avalanche accidents and 50,000km of GPS tracks from actual backcountry ski tours.

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Ski Train seats on sale

The Eurostar Ski Train tickets goes on sale tomorrow at 8am (Wednesday, 17th July 2019). There is a handy guide by Daniel at Snowcarbon on getting the best seats here. I found out about this from an email from Daniel and was also introduced to this character that the he interviewed extolling the virtues of taking the train:

Daniel knows how to get you to the Alps, but if you are already in the area and want to know public transport options, check out Snow and Rail which gives details on every ski resort in the Alps you can get to by train alone.

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The ski season has started

Les Dents du Midi
The ski season in the Northern Hemisphere has well and truly started, but the snowline has retreated in recent days as warmer weather hit the Alps. Most of the resorts with skiing and snowboarding on glaciers have opened. Verbier, open at weekends to date will be fully open from this weekend.

The weather has caused havoc with the winter sports schedule, with a number of World Cup events re-scheduled. However the higher resorts are gradually opening, and colder conditions and snowfall are due this week. Les Diablerets, for example, is currently enjoying temperatures around 10 degrees Celcius, but will be below freezing by next Monday.

The World Meteorological Organisation says there is a 70% chance of El Niño developing for the ski season this year. If so, it will almost certainly bring colder temperatures and more snowfall than normal to the Alps.

For those looking ahead to Christmas, ski conditions look promising. Zermatt, for example, will see fresh snowfall most days ahead of the Christmas break.

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Snow Farming

With increasingly warm years, ski resorts have been looking for ways to improve the snow cover. Snow cannon have proved extremely popular but are expensive and not the most ecological solution.
Kitzbuhel http://www.swisswintersports.co.uk/images/kitzbuhel.jpg
Another approach has been what is referred to as “snow farming” but could be better described as snow preservation. The technique is to cover residual snow from one season to use the next, typically using sawdust or tarpaulins. Amongst the resorts using it are Davos, Kitzbühel and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The cost varies but Kitzbühel reckon it costs the resort about $165,000 a season and can significantly impact the early season snow coverage. Typically 65-80% of the snow that is farmed can be preserved.

The approach is not limited to winter sports, and a similar approach is being used to preserve shrinking glaciers.

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