Snow report Oberstdorf, 01/15/2021

Snow condition

Significant improvement in the snow conditions throughout the Allgäu. In the last 3 days, the amount of snow that came down was certainly a few meters in places. I was able to sink my skis lengthways into the snow and only 30 cm was still sticking out. It's sparser in the forest. You couldn't ski here before and it doesn't make sense now either. You simply get too far through to the ground. No ground contact in open terrain between 900 and 1600 m

Snow quality

Snow quality 4 stars! It's loose powder, mostly lightly packed, and also slightly heavier in the afternoon with the influence of the sun. Riding fun rather 3 stars. There is simply too much snow to build up speed. Even with the fat slats and my flyweight, it was only possible today with a lot of effort and with an immense bow wave and getting stuck as soon as it got below 30 degrees. I would never have thought I'd say this, but despite 90 cm of pow, walking uphill and enjoying the view was almost more fun today.

Tense. We consistently stayed below 30 degrees and outside the catchment area of steep slopes. Nevertheless, there were 2 loud whamming noises. However, this was also in the very flat forest and mostly when you create a new track or take two steps out of the existing track. You should definitely keep an eye out for terrain traps, even on supposedly flat descents. A fall alone is enough to bury yourself. if there is still some snow and the terrain was steeper, a mini slope can become dangerous. we did not observe any cracks or snowboards triggered by skiers. However, a snow groomer on the ridge path to the Weiherkopf triggered a snow slab with a crack thickness of around 60 cm (photo). 2 cm of snow built up underneath directly on the turf. Overall, the problem is that the first part of the snow fell with hurricane force and the drift snow was snowed in, the last 50cm or so came without wind and covered the danger spots

Overall impression

Finally a solid base for the coming weeks. Below the tree line, the snow will hopefully settle well over the next few days and also get faster again (more rebound would be good)
Until then, it's a case of waiting. Don't be tempted to ski steeper and don't get stuck in the snow either.