Snow report Alpenostrand, 01/19/2019

Snow condition

At Niederalpl, where we were today, the snow measuring station has been "overrun" for days, i.e. too much snow than expected. About three meters at 1200m! In the forest, you're practically walking on the 1st floor of the trees. Very unusual when you know the tours here in normal (approx. 1m) snow conditions.

Snow quality

The fly in the ointment. Directly to the south there is a crust under about 5 cm of fresh snow from the night before yesterday (?). On the north side, old, well-settled dry snow. But you can tell that the snow came with a strong storm. Nevertheless, much better than expected and actually very fine for riding (just zero face-shot potential).

LWD Styria issued 2 for the region below 1500m and 3 above. There were no visible signs, also no old (snow-covered) spontaneous descents etc. The trend is certainly downward (according to the LWD). However, the road on the Mariazell side to Niederalpl is still closed.

Overall impression

Our tour (Kleiner Wildkamm front side with Sohlenkogelschlag) was very nice in terms of the descent (first lines without having to make tracks for the ascent ...) and not least because of the overall impression (masses of snow) a unique experience. It wasn't lonely, but the crowds were very limited (very few loners and duos, a group of 5 in front of us).