PONTRESINA – MARCH 2018
April 3, 2018

Visiting a good old friend again

Because of a weather phenomenon called “Polarwirbel Split” the prediction of the conditions and precipitation was again not easy, but the participants for the Powderchase March should not be disappointed.

A little Storm just hit the south-western region on Monday before our trip, but unfortunately with quite warm temperatures, which meant we had to look at higher alpine regions. Calling in local guides around this area finally led us to the decision to go to Pontresina, Switzerland. An area we haven’t been to for quite some time, but always enjoyed good conditions. This weekend we basically took off exactly from how we remembered it, basically like visiting a good old friend.

It snowed a lot on arrival day from Thursday to Friday, forcing some of us to put on snow chains in order to overcome the Bernina pass and get to the hotel. Inconvenient but a hustle every Powderchaser gladly takes on him/herself because this means good news – Powder the next day.

Because of this weather forecast, we decided to switch guiding days to Friday and Saturday to use the fresh snow right away and skip the usual warm up day. A decision nobody regretted on Firday morning.

About 15-20cm of fresh, cold, fluffy snow and an absolute blue bird day waited for us and started even with little pow turns right from the hotel to the train station, which brought us to Lagalp and Diavolezza resorts. Unique travelling style in Switzerland!

From here on we rather let pictures talk, because that mountain scenery combined with these conditions is something you can’t describe but have to witness yourself to realize its full beauty.

Quick change from Lagalp to Diavolezza. Good mountainguide Ludwig has a comfy bus to overcome current problems of the regular bus!

Friday was unbelievably good, so most groups decided not to go for lunch, leaving everybody exhausted but more than happy at dinner. For Saturday another little storm with more snow came in, but also in combination with clouds and bad visibility, forcing us to go to Corvatsch in order to find some trees for more visibility. Higher alpine most of the times means better snow quality, but also more prone to bad weather situations and hence bad visibility. That is part of the game and definitely hit us on Saturday, but did not stop us from chasing the goods. The groups still found nice snow in little couloirs and the woods and taught everybody at least one thing: Appreciate Friday even more with unreal conditions

Sunday was meant to be a “cool down” day without guides and where everybody can ride on its own, since we didn’t have the usual warm up day on Friday. More fresh snow fell overnight and visibility cleared up especially in the morning make one thing clear: This is going to be anything else than “cooling down”. So everybody who didn’t decide to go home early experienced another great day in Corvatsch, chasing the fresh goods in the woods!

A perfect ending day for an absolute great weekend and last “regular” Powderchase of the season.

Pontresina old friend, this was another visit to remember, we will be back!