Snow report Kitzbühel Alps, 02/11/2018

Snow condition

Never before in my ski touring career has there been so much snow. Both in the valley in the Griesenau (around one meter) and at the top in the various gullies of the Griesner Kars (sometimes several meters higher than the last two winters in direct comparison). If it continues like this, it will be some time before the toll road opens.

Snow quality

We spent the night at the Pflaumhütte. On Saturday, on the north side, snow cover up to about 1600m, in other expos even higher. Nice powder above that. During the night a good 10 cm of fresh snow, partly influenced by the wind. On Sunday the wind picked up and from 10:00 there were huge wind vanes to marvel at (westerly wind, very turbulent), before the blue sky was replaced by light snowfall within 30 minutes around noon. The downhill skiing on Sunday was great down to about 1300 m, further down the irregular and disturbing harsh snow prevailed.

On Saturday, warning level 1 was still comprehensible, two ECTs were not triggered on a western slope (1850m above sea level, 30°). Only by shoveling (i.e. with shovel pressure from behind) were we able to identify a sliding layer, about 15 cm below the surface. Presumably on the same crust, we kicked off a few small slabs in the gully to Schönwetterfensterl (north, 35°) on Sunday and created a 2m long crack in the ascent of a side gully from Goinger Törl (east, 35°). Since then, the warning level has risen steadily - very understandable given the strong gusts, which have certainly transported a lot of snow. Loose snow slides from the rocks were definitely already noticeable in the gullies on Sunday.

Overall impression

Mega weekend in the Griesner Kar. Best possible conditions in the gullies above. Extremely plenty of snow; good weather windows, among other things, making it much easier to access and ski than in previous winters.