Snow report Upper Black Forest, 12/29/2020

Snow condition

This is already quite good. Zastler Tal is very doable from the barrier. Descent via the road at the bottom then no problem. Even in the forest on the north side, the amount of snow is increasing rapidly. Shortly below Zastlerhütt I put the pole in sheltered from the wind. There is a good meter there. On the south side, the trees are green and there is a little less snow.

Snow quality

Unfortunately, the Zastler Loch is strongly influenced by wind and warmth. Heavy, compact snow. First 15cm very compressed. Soft underneath. In the forest, however, between 1100 and 950 very nice, loose powder snow. There are some tempting descents here, but these are not so popular in terms of nature conservation. Apart from the small corridor below Hüttenwasen, we kept to ourselves.

In my opinion, this is very important in the Zastler. Second picture: traces of wind can already be seen in the forest, and the whole basin is pumped full of firm drift snow. Underneath is something soft, a clear weak layer is not recognizable at first. When we climbed up, there was a very defensive downhill track on the hut slope on the right, far away from the guard. When we came back down ("ladies' descent"), the slope had gone down on two levels. This was probably caused by a skier entering the slope directly from above. The crack was approx. 15-20 cm (which coincides with the board layer at the bottom) (see last two pictures: before - after). However, this didn't stop others from traversing the slope from the right and hanging around below the neighboring pit. I think a remote release is currently possible.

Overall impression

Very nice 700m tour in the snow-covered Zastlerwald. Really beautiful.
Masses came from Stollenbach via Immisberg...