Below are a selection of my favourite websites. I use these to plan trips for summer and winter, so are generally mapping or weather related. There are also links to other Mountain Professionals whose services I’ve used when learning new skills or just adventures.
Norway
I’ve been to Norway a few times for ski touring, trekking and climbing. I find it one of the greatest countries to visit and the feeling of wilderness is great.
For planning hut to hut trips using the DNT huts, the ut.no site is an incredible resource. It even allows you to view the standard Norwegian Turkart maps online for route planning and details the type of hut and other accommodation.
For weather the Norwegian yr website is useful
The Norwegian Avalanche Forecasting site is below. They also have a fantastic phone App.
France
Another country I visit a lot, Alpine Climbing, Skiing and Ski Touring, hiking and most of my IML training has been in France.
General weather and Avalanche Forecasts, I find the Meteo France website and App very useful in planning the days activities. Avalanche forecasts are generally updated at 4pm each day and provide the forecast for the next 24 hours. The forecasts also usefully show the previous 7 days and the next few days so you can get a feel for how the snowpack has developed.
The Geoportail site allows you to view the French IGN maps online, you can also add the shading to the maps to indicate slope angle (this is great for planning winter adventures when you may be travelling through or below avalanche terrain). The great thing with this site is that you can import your GPX route and check which terrain you plan to head through. It doesn’t look that intuitive on how to get the shading, maybe I’ll add some instructions in the future.
Austria
I’ve mostly skied and snow-shoed in Austria, so these sites are winter activity focussed, but it has amazing hiking and huts for the summer as well.
Avalanche Forecasts are from the following site, you need to know your Austrian Geography or region names, but other than that the information is good.
The huts in Austria are incredible, more like hotels than huts. The following site allows online booking for some huts or at least allows you to find them.
The following site is similar to the French site and shows the slope angle with shading and allows you to plan your routes to stay safe in avalanche terrain.
My favourite people:
A British Mountain Guide based in Chamonix that I’ve used for many years now for both Alpinism, Climbing and Ski Touring.
A British Association of Ski Instructors ski instructor based in Chamonix who provides excellent instruction for skiing.
Bruce Goodlad and Mike Austin provide excellent Avalanche Skills courses.
