A cloud base of 1300ft on visual circuits, few at 800ft, light snow, low sun, take away the matcho pilot attitude of i can cope with anything, so they should have been able to as well, these are marginal conditions for brand new guys to type, granted I know at this time of year it's good weather up north.
Having watched AF447 loads in CRM classes and not being an Airbus pilot is there any chance the trainee could have pushed forward on the side stick this cancelling out the training Captains inputs (what the inexperienced trainee saw didn't match his mental model while overloaded)
It seems very strange after all these years of this never happening on an Airbus it happens on a training flight.
The trainer mentally wouldn't want to pull the side stick so far back close to the ground, (to cancel out the trainees input) the trainee wouldn't have the same feel for the control input ??