Snow report Paznaun Valley, 04/10/2015

Snow condition

The snow conditions are good to very good despite the fact that spring is already well advanced. On the south side, it doesn't reach too far down, but otherwise it still reaches as far as the valleys. Of course, this is also thanks to the very heavy snowfall of the last 10 days. In the forest it's getting scarce in places.

Snow quality

A bit of everything. In places there is already firn on steeper sunny slopes, but there is also a lot of crushed harsh snow. In very shady slopes above around 2400m, there is also some very settled powder snow.

I would describe that as very tricky. Both yesterday and today we turned back not only at the actual destination, but also at the alternative destination. The main reason for this is the increasing moisture penetration and the associated loss of strength in the snow cover. This occurs in fresh snow (still up to 1m deep in places!), which often comes off on a crust, but can also extend to the deep rime from the high winter, which has almost been forgotten in recent weeks. Everywhere you can see very large crack edges, some of which extend over far more than just a single slope. From midday onwards, there are always heavy settling noises, sometimes you think that the entire terrain chamber is settling, something I've only seen from glaciers later in the year. There were also repeated small and medium-sized avalanches, mostly in the form of boards. With the clouds today, there was also increasing moisture penetration on shady slopes with corresponding avalanche activity. In spite of the supporting snow cover, some of the fresh snow is breaking off as a slab, unpleasant. Probably won't get any better over the next few days.

Overall impression

The avalanche situation is really difficult, even with the firn it might still be interesting when every slope has actually slipped... Actually, you can only stay at home or ski the slopes for the next few days. Good snow is scarce anyway...