Snow report Zugspitz Arena, 02/12/2016

Snow condition

Overall, the amount of snow in the Außerfern is low for this time of year and the more south-facing ski tours from valley locations are only possible to a limited extent. In the other exposures, it is sometimes possible to start from the valleys, although the snow cover in the forest is very thin. The snow is very heavily influenced by the stormy winds of the last week and has been transported accordingly. Today, too, it almost blew us off the summit. Nevertheless, on a positive note, it snowed 5 to 10 cm of fresh snow in the night from Friday to Saturday.

Snow quality

The snow quality on our ski tour was quite good despite the influence of the wind. Below around 1500 m above sea level, the snow cover thawed during the course of the day.

The last few days have stabilized the snow cover somewhat. Nevertheless, you should still be very careful as the wind (large cornices, snow plumes on summits...) is blowing gale force and has blown off entire slopes in places. Also worth mentioning is a sliding snow avalanche on a south-facing slope that should have come down yesterday (photo). Today, the warming was not expected to be as strong.

Overall impression

We canceled our planned tour today due to the lack of snow, the stormy wind and the avalanche situation.