Resources
Field notes on snow & conditions
Evidence-based, data-driven articles for backcountry skiers who want to understand what is actually happening under the surface — snowpack science, avalanche literacy, and the daily decisions that keep you safe.
How to Assess Snowpack Stability: A Data-Driven Guide
Weak layers, the 10°C/m faceting threshold, the EAWS 1–5 scale and snowpack tests — a data-driven framework for reading backcountry snow conditions before you ski.
How Aspect & Elevation Affect Snow Conditions (and Avalanche Danger)
Snow conditions change by aspect and elevation across a single mountain on a single day: a shady north couloir holds cold powder while a sun-baked south face runs melt-freeze to wet mush. Here is how the two biggest levers reshape the snowpack — where powder and corn survive, where the danger hides, and how the bulletin’s rose encodes it all.
Le kit de survie de Mike Horn
Douze objets, une philosophie. Le matériel réellement documenté de l'un des plus grands explorateurs vivants, en format carrousel — glissez, puis creusez chaque item.
Avalanche Survival Rate: Why the First 15 Minutes Decide Everything
How long can you survive buried in an avalanche? Survival probability holds near 91% for roughly 15 minutes, then collapses to ~31% by 35 as the air pocket seals. This is the science of that curve — and why the person standing next to you, not a helicopter, is the one who has to save you.
How Long Will Your Ski Tour Take? Munter Method & Turnaround Times
The Munter method turns two numbers — distance and vertical — into a ski tour time estimate. Learn the formula, why vertical dominates, how to build a realistic buffer, and how to back-plan a turnaround time before you leave the car.
The Best Free FATMAP Alternatives in 2026 — An Honest, Head-to-Head Comparison
FATMAP is gone — its maps now sit behind a paid Strava subscription with no avalanche bulletins. We compare the real free replacements for 2026 (Snow Trace, Whympr, PeakVisor and more), including where each one genuinely wins and where it doesn't.
How Much Snow? Snow-to-Liquid Ratio & the Powder Day
The same water can fall as 14 cm of wet cement or 36 cm of cold smoke. Understanding snow-to-liquid ratio is the difference between a forecast and a powder day — and between a safe load and a dangerous one.
Spring Corn & the Melt-Freeze Cycle: Timing the Descent
Perfect corn isn't decided by the sunny forecast — it's decided by the night before. Here's the melt-freeze physics, the pole test for the corn window, and how to time your descent around the compass.
Avalanche Slope Angle: What Angle Do Avalanches Happen At?
The large majority of skier-triggered slab avalanches happen on slopes between 30 and 45 degrees, clustering near 38°. Here is why nature picks that window — and how to use slope angle as your first and sharpest terrain filter.
The Avalanche Problem Types: A Field Guide to What's Trying to Slide
The avalanche problem types are the framework behind every modern bulletin: storm slab, wind slab, persistent (and deep persistent) slab, wet snow, loose snow, cornice fall and glide. Learn where each forms, its telltale field signs, how it behaves, and how to manage it — because the same danger level means a totally different day depending on which problem is active.
What 7,954 Avalanche Accidents Tell Us — Aspect, Altitude & Month
We aggregated 7,954 real, geolocated avalanche incidents from France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy — and the pattern is sharp. Accidents are not spread evenly across the compass, the altitude range or the calendar. They cluster on shady northerly aspects, in a narrow mid-altitude band, in the depth of winter. Explore the interactive accident profile, then read what each axis means for your own decisions.
Decoding the BRA: How to Read the Météo-France Avalanche Bulletin
The danger number is the headline, not the story. Here's how to actually read the Météo-France BRA — the avalanche problems, the aspect/elevation rose, the natural-vs-triggered distinction — and how the same EAWS information looks on the Italian, Swiss and Spanish bulletins.
How to Train for Ski Touring: A Summer-to-Winter Fitness Plan
How do you train for ski touring? Winter fitness is built in summer. Here's the physiology, a periodised June-to-first-snow plan, the aerobic and strength sessions that actually move the needle, and why a fitter engine isn't just more fun — it's a genuine safety margin.
When and Where to Take an Avalanche Course (and Why Before December)
Most skiers book an avalanche course the week they need it — which is the week it's full. Here's what a recreational course actually teaches, the levels and progression, where to look and what it costs, how to pick a reputable provider, and why the honest move is to get trained before the season starts, not halfway through it.
Summer Ski Touring: Where to Ski, What to Climb, and How to Scout for Winter
Summer ski touring means two things: the high glaciers and shaded snowfields where you can still make turns in July and August, and the mountain objectives — big vertical, scrambling, glacier travel, cycling — that build a stronger tourer while you scout your winter lines snow-free. A field guide to both.
How to Choose Your Ski Touring Setup: An Off-Season Buyer’s Guide
Off-season is when you research and buy. This is the decision guide, not a catalog: how to choose ski touring skis, boots, bindings and skins by the tradeoffs that actually matter — weight versus downhill, fit versus flex, grip versus glide — plus the safety trinity you never compromise on, a rough budget split, and an interactive layering simulator.
Ski touring in the Vanoise: best routes, huts & avalanche profile
The Vanoise is the broadest high-glacier playground in the Northern French Alps — 359 catalogued ski-touring lines, 66 huts and bivouacs, and a dense national-park core. This guide pulls the marquee routes and the highest refuges straight from our database, then slices our avalanche-accident dataset to the Vanoise alone so you can see where, how high and when accidents actually cluster here.
Ski touring in the Écrins: best routes, huts & avalanche profile
The Écrins is the wildest, steepest of the French ski-touring massifs — 772 catalogued lines and 207 huts and bivouacs, from the Oisans couloirs to the high glacier basins under the Barre. This guide pulls the marquee routes and highest refuges straight from our database, then slices our avalanche-accident dataset to the Écrins alone.
Ski touring in the Mont-Blanc massif: best routes, huts & avalanche profile
The Mont-Blanc massif is the highest, most glaciated ski-touring arena in the Alps — 533 catalogued lines and 85 huts and bivouacs reaching above 4,300 m, the Argentière basin, the Vallée Blanche, the Chamonix north faces. This guide pulls the marquee routes and highest refuges from our database, then slices our avalanche dataset — fatalities included — to the massif alone.
Ski touring in the Dolomites: best routes, huts & avalanche profile
The Dolomites are a ski-touring world apart — limestone towers, broad alm plateaux, and a dense network of South Tyrolean snow stations that actually report. This guide pulls the catalogued lines and huts from our database, shows live snow depths from inside the massif, and slices our avalanche dataset to the Dolomites alone.
Ski touring in the Pyrenees: best routes & avalanche profile
The Pyrenees are the great underrated ski-touring range — a 400 km wall of snow with a snowpack all its own, straddling France, Spain and Andorra. This guide pulls 324 catalogued lines from our database and slices our avalanche-accident dataset to the range alone, so you can read the Pyrenean pattern rather than borrow the Alpine one.