Beginner's Guide to Reading Avalanche Bulletins for Non-Skiers
Avalanche bulletins aren't just for skiers. Here's how to read the danger rating, elevation bands, slope...
Snow reports are short documents. A resort posts a handful of numbers before breakfast, and most people skim them for the one figure that looks most exciting. The trouble is that a single number never tells you what a weekend will actually feel like. Sixty centimetres of base depth can mean two very different mountains depending on where it was measured, and a foot of new snow that fell four days ago is not the same as a foot that fell last night. Learning to read the whole report takes about ten minutes. It also saves you from driving six hours to ski on ice, or from skipping a resort that was quietly having its best week of the season.
The base depth is the snowpack measured at a fixed point, usually mid-mountain, and resorts differ in how they measure and where. Some report the depth on a groomed piste; others report a sheltered meadow. That is why comparing base depths between two resorts is less useful than comparing them within one resort from week to week.
What matters is whether the snow covers what you want to ski. A resort with thin grass, gentle gradients and plenty of snowmaking can open comfortably on 40 cm. A steep, rocky resort on the same 40 cm may have bare patches on anything unpisted. If the report lists separate depths for base, mid-mountain and summit, treat the summit figure as the optimistic one and the base figure as the realistic one for the village and lower runs.
Also look at how the pack is described. Words like "machine-groomed", "hard-packed" or "variable" tell you more about the surface than the depth alone. A deep base that froze solid is a very different proposition from a shallow base of dry snow.
Resorts usually report snowfall over 24 hours, 48 hours and sometimes seven days. The 24-hour figure is the one to read first, but the 48-hour and weekly figures tell you the story behind it. Twenty centimetres overnight is a gift. Twenty centimetres spread over six days, with no new snow since Tuesday, is mostly tracked-out, wind-packed terrain with the soft snow long gone from the popular runs.
If the report says six centimetres in 24 hours and thirty in 48, the storm has passed and the next day will be about leftovers and groomers. If fifteen centimetres fell overnight and the forecast shows more during the day, expect soft turns, slow roads and possibly some lifts on hold. Both can be excellent weekends — they just suit different expectations.
One more thing: reports are usually filed early in the morning, so a heavy snowfall during your drive may not appear until the next day's update. Check the timestamp on the report, not just the numbers.
This is the indicator most people skip, and it is often the one that shapes the weekend. Wind closes chairlifts and gondolas, scours snow off exposed slopes and loads it onto lee slopes where it can sit in unstable slabs. A resort can report a metre of snow and still have half its mountain shut if the upper lifts are exposed to a strong westerly.
Read the wind speed and direction together. Strong wind from a consistent direction strips one side of the mountain and buries the other, which is useful to know if you like sheltered tree runs. If the report mentions "lift holds" or "delayed opening", take it seriously — the resort is telling you something.
For off-piste plans, wind-loaded slopes are the ones to be careful about. If you are heading away from marked runs, get local avalanche information for the area and consider a guide or a refresher course rather than relying on a snow report alone.
Temperature works on the snow all day, not just at 7 a.m. A cold, clear night leaves hard, fast groomers that soften by mid-morning. A warm afternoon turns south-facing slopes to slush, which refreezes overnight into something shiny and unforgiving. If the report shows a warm spell with above-zero temperatures at mid-mountain, expect spring conditions in the sun and ice in the shade.
Watch for the freezing level if the resort publishes it. A freezing level above the summit means rain, and rain destroys a snowpack faster than sun does. A freezing level at the base means the whole mountain stays cold, which usually keeps the snow in decent shape but can mean slow lifts and chilly children.
Inversions matter too. It is not unusual for the valley to sit in cold fog while the upper mountain is mild and sunny. If the village looks grim on the webcam, check the summit camera before writing off the weekend.
A resort with forty lifts and six open is a different place from the same resort in full swing. The total terrain figure can be misleading, so look at which lifts are running. The important ones are the links: the lift that connects the base to the upper sector, the gondola that gets you out of the village, the chair that serves the runs you like.
Be sceptical of "opening soon" and "scheduled". Until a lift is listed as open, plan as though it is not. And check the terrain open against your ability level — a mountain with plenty of open beginner terrain may have nothing suitable for a confident intermediate, and the reverse is just as common.
Before you commit to a booking, run through these in order. They take two minutes and they answer different questions.
If the report passes all seven, book with confidence. If two or three look weak, either lower your expectations to groomers and a short day, or pick a different weekend. A snow report will not guarantee good snow, but it will reliably warn you away from the weekends that were never going to work.
Photo: Francesco Ungaro / Pexels
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