Today we're going to talk weather
because it is a huge part of free riding
and whether you're checking for your sunny spot
so that you can do your big adventure
or you want to fine tune your avalanche forecast
seeing the storms coming your way etc
there's so much to talk about
but today I'm gonna present my own way to check it
and hopefully you can get inspired.
So before we begin it's really important to know that weather systems
and tools to check the weather
are really different from one valley to the next
from one resort to the next
and even from one country to the next
So today I'm going to present you the way I do it in Verbier
because that's where I live,
but you might want to take some from it,
test it wherever you are
and adapt it if needed.
So for a 10-day prediction I usually use yr.no
it gives you a general idea on the kind of weather that's coming
you can tap on each day
and it will tell you the evolution
if it's snow, it's usually pretty accurate
and I know I rely on it quite a lot
and even if I'm traveling abroad
that's kind of the platform that I use.
So I really like to know how much snow is coming
so you can see here there is a lot of snow coming
so it's gonna be good,
it's also good on that long-term perspective
to kind of check the map
and see the evolution of it, so it kind of makes you understand
which way the system is coming.
For five, six days and below that so one, two, three days I'll use Meteo Suisse
like so that's like the national kind of weather system
they've got a really good app which tells you an overview of the next few days
with all the the precipitations
so I think that's always really accurate
and it really takes into consideration the altitude
and the position of Verbier within the rest of the country.
Then the animation I find it really useful,
that's gonna be like a live animation of all the precipitations
the snow,
the winds
you can choose on altitude or at ground level
the cloud cover,
which can be also really useful if you don't want to get stuck in the clouds
like we are today!
And the temperatures as well.
If you know a similar one which will work into your country
please feel free to share it so that we can give the most information to everyone
but if you're coming this way to Switzerland, this is the one that works.
So first thing is to check the avalanche bulletin
and read what's happening
it gives you a general overview.
Then when you want to get more precise
you check the stability of the snowpack
what I find really important next to the avalanche bulletin is that map
so you can have a pretty wide view on the whole territory
and then you can really zoom in
and it will tell you exactly in different locations
what aspect, what gradient and above which altitude you need to be careful of.
For me I like when I can see a bit in a more visual way the kind of snowpack,
the forecast and the depth of snow.
So I really like to use the overlays on FATMAP
and you go on live snow
that will tell you the depths of snow there is
or the fresh snow
or the forecasted snow.
So for example here on the forecast, you can see the areas
that are gonna get more snow.
One tool I really like is the custom layer on FATMAP
which will allow me to cross all the information from the snow forecast bulletin
all the aspect ratio and gradient
and it helps me translate it into a map.
So I find that really good because it's really visual.
So whenever you want to go and do a mission somewhere,
you know more or less the slopes which you should be careful of
so it really helps you to forecast your adventures.
So these are a lot of tools and it might feel a little overwhelming
especially if you're going somewhere for a short period of time
so you're gonna get a good overall vision of the weather
but if you want to be more precise feel free to ask locals
and they're going to help you to fine-tune
to see what's been happening
and what's to come your way.
Et voila! This is my way of checking the weather
it's something which evolves all the time and which is not 100% accurate
but I hope that it inspires you to get into it
so that you can plan your adventures better
be safer and have more fun into the mountains.