Snow report Zillertal Alps South, 05/22/2017

Snow condition

You can drive to the 3rd hairpin bend on the Pfitscherjochstraße without any problems. The 5th hairpin bend has not yet been cleared. From the 3rd hairpin bend to the bivouac, it is best to carry your skis on your back on the summer trail. There is enough snow from the bivouac onwards. The glacier is well covered in snow. The bergschrund at the start of the wall is still well filled and easy to negotiate. You can ski down from the bivouac quite far into the stream bed. We only had to carry our skis back to the car for 15 minutes.

Snow quality

Everything hard until the start of the wall. Until then, most of it was done with crampons. Lower third of the wall very hard. Above that a light powder layer. Good to ski. It did not firn up for us.

There were large avalanche cones all along the way. Due to the early start at the bivouac at 4.30 am and the early descent through the wall at 8.00 am, there was no danger. It had also frozen completely overnight.

Overall impression

Great tour after I had to turn back 4 years ago at the foot of the wall due to bad weather and deep snow, I was finally able to put a hook behind this steep descent. In pretty good conditions on the ascent and descent. However, the wall is slowly starting to ice up as the sun thaws the snow, creating an icy surface on top.