Snow report Zugspitz Arena, 04/02/2015

Snow condition

The amount of snow was considerable and the last few days in particular have brought a lot of fresh snow. Due to the strong wind, it was difficult for me to determine the exact depth of the fresh snow as the slopes were at different heights. But I would estimate it at around 30cm. The closed lifts on Wednesday and Thursday were an advantage, as a result of which the slopes were only groomed today. It wasn't until later today that almost all the lifts were back in operation.

Snow quality

Despite the stormy winds over the last few days, the snow quality in the Zugspitze basin was good. In some places you could feel the strong influence of the wind and lower down, at the level of the Brunntal T-bar lift, the high temperatures also affected the snow cover. Overall, however, fine powder was found today.

The situation is extremely precarious. The lifts opened later because they were blown up first. The blasted avalanches reached quite impressive dimensions (pictures of the Zugspitze summit on a snow cloud after blasting in the morning). Unfortunately, the artificially triggered avalanches did not stop there. An avalanche (size 2) occurred on a slope that had already been skied by about 20 people. There were other signs (wind, smaller slides, avalanches, requests from the lift staff) that warned us to be careful. However, there was little sign of caution among the skiers.

Overall impression

It was a very nice day. However, there were a lot of off-piste skiers on the mountain today.