Snow report Upper Black Forest, 12/14/2019

Snow condition

Very changeable. Down in the Zastlertal valley everything is green, at Stollenbach at just under 1000 m it's barely 20 cm. From 1200 m it was more, in sheltered areas (Immisberg) even 50 cm. At the summit it's as good as nothing again, as it's blown off. Could actually be quite a useful basis if it weren't for the forecast rain and warming next week...

Snow quality

More shadow than light. Extremely icy at the top, then there were a few decent turns on Immisberg. Stollenbach was a one-off cardboard snow disaster.

Gale, warm (below 1400 m already plus degrees this morning) on cold, poor visibility, 40 - 50 cm of fresh snow from the last few days on top. These are actually very clear warning signals, especially as the Feldberg plateau is almost snow-free and it should be obvious where all the snow has gone. The following article shows that there are people who take the risk despite the conceivably unfavorable conditions: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/suedbaden/Lawinenopfer-im-Schwarzwald-Mann-von-Lawine-am-Feldberg-verschuettet,mann-von-lawine-am-feldberg-verschuettet-100.html

Overall impression

Well, first ski tour in the Black Forest of the season. Will the weather be good again this year? You HAVE to give it at least 2 stars for that alone. That's what I did with this. The rest was not worth mentioning. Nevertheless, it was nice to be outside :)