With this post I don't want to explain the theory of how to plan a trip to the mountains, but to show all the available tools that are available in Switzerland for this purpose. When I first moved to this country I was impressed by the fact that very detailed and high quality maps could be printed off from the internet...and with time I've discovered more tools that can really be quite useful.
First of all...the weather forecast!
You probably are already aware of all the websites that can be used to provide weather forecasts, but still I wanted to give here my personal view on those after more than 4 years of intensive usage.
- Meteoschweiz: http://www.meteoschweiz.admin.ch/. They have recently changed this website and I'm still going through all the new features available on it. Nevertheless this is the official swiss meteo website and it's quite reliable. In my opinion the forecasts from it are a little bit conservative...This means that if there is a one single drop of rain falling in the whole day, they will probably write that it will rain a little bit. Also, the forecast details are only available distinguished between morning (6-12), afternoon (12-18) and night (18-24)....not hour by hour like other website. But believe me this is most likely as accurate as your forecast can get. What you should read on this website is the text description (for the part of the country you are interested in) and that's it. It's already quite difficult to have good weather forecasts. If you then expect to have them accurate down to the single hour you are probably asking the poor weather scientist to use his/her crystal ball.
- Mountain forecast: http://www.mountain-forecast.com/. This website has forecast, which they claim are accurate, for tons of mountains all over the world and at different height for each of them. Personally I don't really trust this one too much for the weather itself, but I find it OK to know the temperature, wind, wind chill and so on.
- Meteocentrale: http://www.meteocentrale.ch/. According to a famous swiss glaciologist and meteorologist this is probably the best website in Switzerland. I find it quite reliable even though I don't really like the fact that they try to give the forecast hour by hour...how can you be so accurate??
- Meteoblue: https://www.meteoblue.com/. That's one of those website that looks cool...and that's all really. Weather forecast are coming from complicated CFD like calculations and there are only a few calculation models constantly running all over the world. Some websites like Meteoschweiz have scientist or very experienced people sitting in front of a computer looking at the results of the calculation models, interpreting them and adjusting the results if and when needed. Other like this one, meteoblue, take the results one to one from the calculation models without spending much time in thinking if they make sense or not. So for sure you can get a forecast in each and every point of planet earth, and at any time of the day...but if any of you reading this has ever been working with CFD of finite element will perfectly understand what I mean. You can't take results out of a calculation without some interpretation. I'm not saying they are always wrong...but in my experience they are not the most accurate.
My approach in general is to look at all 4 websites and make some sort of average of what the weather is going to be. If all say the same thing then the chances are pretty high they will all be correct. If instead they all have different forecasts...then it means the weather is most likely very uncertain and at that point it's up to you. My advise is to always go in any case, except when the forecast is really bad. If it's uncertain go there anyway and only once you are there and looking up the sky you decide whether it's really according to the forecast or not. Weather forecast is only a forecast afterall...and weather in the Alps can change very locally.
Something for your orientation skills...maps!
When I first realized how much free material is actually available over the internet I was literally amazed. In Switzerland you can buy some of the best maps I've ever seen...but the best thing is that you can find the same quality maps available for free on the internet. There are a couple of websites for this, one application for your smartphone and a computer program that you can buy.
- Map Geo: http://map.geo.admin.ch/. This is probably the best website you can find for maps. Other than very detailed maps (same quality as the one you would buy, except from the paper on which you print them...) there are tons of other information about things from geology to communication. One of the most important thing you can find here is the possibility of overlaying on the maps the contours of the slopes steeper than 30°. In particular they will be highlighted in different colours if the angle is between 30° and 35°, or between 35° and 40° or beyond 40°. This is extremely useful when planning skitouring trips in winter. To have these contours available just go to -> Base Information and Planning -> Elevantion -> Slopes over 30°. Naturally, there is the option to print the map in different formats.
- Wanderland: http://map.wanderland.ch/. Quite similar to the one above, the main difference being that you can't have the overlay of the slopes steeper than 30°. On the other hand though you can have lots of other things such as all the bus and train stops, official footpaths (even though if you are a mountaineer this might not be that interesting...) biking routes and so much more. Also here is possible to print the maps
- Swiss Map Mobile. This is a very useful application for your smartphone. The thing is you need to pay a yearly fee to get access to all the maps, but it's around 40CHF a year so not really that much. The good thing is that with this app you get on your phone all the maps of Switzerland, and you can also locate your GPS position on it if you want. Also, if you have previously uploaded a GPS track on the app, you can easily follow that. I still prefer the old approach of map and compass, but in a white out on a glacier this kind of things can be very tricky to use. One thing to mention maybe is that the app does not come with all the maps already available. You have to download them. The best way to do it is to download the maps at home (possibly with a WiFi) before leaving. Maximum possible to be downloaded is an area of 10x10 Km. Alternatively, whenever you open the app the region of the map you are interested in will be downloaded. You can find more information here http://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/internet/swisstopo/en/home/products/maps/mobile.html
I said that there was also a computer program that you could use. This is called Swiss Map Online. To be honest you don't really need this one. The one and only advantage is that you can have all the skitouring routes already overlayed on the map, but if you keep reading this post you will see that there is another way of getting them...even though not for all of them.
Something for the winter
Here there are a couple of things which are useful mainly (if not only) for winter.
Something for the winter
Here there are a couple of things which are useful mainly (if not only) for winter.
- SLF: http://www.slf.ch/index_EN. This is an extremely important website. It contains the avalanche bulletins for the whole Switzerland, updated (of course only in winter and early spring) on a daily basis. The avalanche bulletin is the main information that you will find here but there are lots of other things. For example maps with the snow heights, avalanche accidents reports, some general information on avalanches and so on.
- Ski touren guru: http://www.skitourenguru.ch/ Now...this is the one. When I found out about this website I literally could not believe at the amount of information contained into it. Basically it's a collection of ski touring routes for a great part of Switzerland. Unfortunately not all of them are available, but apparently they will be. The routes can be ordered for height at the start, height at the top, altitude gain and so on. Then...and this is cherry on the cake...you can have an overlay of each routes on the official Map Geo website with the route highlighted in green, yellow or red according to the 3X3 risk matrix! Also, for each route you will find information on the public transport, height profile, snow height and so on. Things like the snow height and the risk level are interpolated with an algorithm from the data available from SLF. Sometimes the interpolation yields weird results, but hey...you really can't ask for more. For me is the perfect tool to plan a ski tour, or a snowshoe tour if you prefer.
Conditions on the mountains
Now that you have so many information on your next tour you might be asking: "but where do I find infos about the conditions on the mountains?". This is not a necessarily easy question, but the fact that nowadays there are so many people going to the mountains can be helpful in those cases. There are many websites that contain those sorts of information, and here I present the two ones that I use the most.
Routes and ideas
The last thing you might need is to have ideas on new routes to tackle. The two websites that I mentioned just above are normally very good for the purpose, but the good old Google is very helpful in this respect as well. Probably though the best source of information are the guide books that you can buy in the book shops or in the outdoor shops, which are dedicated to routes description. One thing that I think is missing in Switzerland is a collection of winter routes. I don't mean ice climbing routes, but really goulottes, north faces, mixed routes and the like. Once again however the good old Google knows everything, so why not try asking...
In terms of books the classical ones are the official guide books from the SAC (Schweizer Alpin Club) which are differentiated in mountaineering, ski touring, snow shoeing, hiking...In those books there will be descriptions of the routes, sometimes using far too many words (such as the description of the Matterhorn), sometimes even a few pictures which are most of the times not very detailed. Another set of books which I have recently discovered are the ones from Topo Verlag. They do contain much less routes of the SAC guide books but they are normally focused on the more classical ones, and probably the nicest ones. The main advantage though is that for almost each route you have a map with the route drawn on it and also a topo, which can be way more helpful than 1000 words. Not always though...sometimes a good description is also very helpful. So is probably better to look at both books and then take the best out of them.
Conclusions
I think now you should have all the information you need to plan your next trip to the mountains. Sure there are other websites with some additional route information of similar things, but as I said those are the main ones. Even all the information in the world are not going to make your alpine climb totally safe, so be careful! Mountains are dangerous, and apparently so they have to be!
I hope that you find all this helpful and don't hesitate in replying back with some other websites with other cool features such as Skitourenguru, or where useful information can be found. Happy climbing!
Now that you have so many information on your next tour you might be asking: "but where do I find infos about the conditions on the mountains?". This is not a necessarily easy question, but the fact that nowadays there are so many people going to the mountains can be helpful in those cases. There are many websites that contain those sorts of information, and here I present the two ones that I use the most.
- Hikr: http://www.hikr.org/. Here people upload reports of their hiking/mountaineering/climbing trips, often with pictures. Some reports are very well written and give actually lots of inputs, others not as well...but you can always look at the pictures to get an idea about the conditions. It's written mostly in German, but sometimes the reports are also in italian and in english.
- Gipfelbuch: http://gipfelbuch.ch/gipfelbuch/verhaeltnisse. This website is much more focused on reporting conditions on the various routes. Typically there are a few pictures for the purpose but also a description. However, if you are looking for a technical description of the route you won't most likely find it her
Routes and ideas
The last thing you might need is to have ideas on new routes to tackle. The two websites that I mentioned just above are normally very good for the purpose, but the good old Google is very helpful in this respect as well. Probably though the best source of information are the guide books that you can buy in the book shops or in the outdoor shops, which are dedicated to routes description. One thing that I think is missing in Switzerland is a collection of winter routes. I don't mean ice climbing routes, but really goulottes, north faces, mixed routes and the like. Once again however the good old Google knows everything, so why not try asking...
In terms of books the classical ones are the official guide books from the SAC (Schweizer Alpin Club) which are differentiated in mountaineering, ski touring, snow shoeing, hiking...In those books there will be descriptions of the routes, sometimes using far too many words (such as the description of the Matterhorn), sometimes even a few pictures which are most of the times not very detailed. Another set of books which I have recently discovered are the ones from Topo Verlag. They do contain much less routes of the SAC guide books but they are normally focused on the more classical ones, and probably the nicest ones. The main advantage though is that for almost each route you have a map with the route drawn on it and also a topo, which can be way more helpful than 1000 words. Not always though...sometimes a good description is also very helpful. So is probably better to look at both books and then take the best out of them.
Conclusions
I think now you should have all the information you need to plan your next trip to the mountains. Sure there are other websites with some additional route information of similar things, but as I said those are the main ones. Even all the information in the world are not going to make your alpine climb totally safe, so be careful! Mountains are dangerous, and apparently so they have to be!
I hope that you find all this helpful and don't hesitate in replying back with some other websites with other cool features such as Skitourenguru, or where useful information can be found. Happy climbing!
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