Snow report Zugspitz Arena, 02/15/2019

Snow condition

Very good. You can reach the valley to the bus stop in Ehrwald on the south-west side via the forest paths or in the forest without touching the ground. Some slopes are free of snow due to track snow avalanches. The narrow sections in the new world are quite well filled in. Nevertheless, you will touch a few stones in the steep part if you are not careful. Especially on the upper meters near the ridge at about 2600m it is well blown away and it resembles a lunar landscape peppered with stones. Fortunately only for a few meters. Otherwise the snow conditions are very good for February

Snow quality

Spring conditions? We were already hoping to encounter firn and speculated that the snow cover, which had frozen through at night, would not soften quite so quickly due to the February sun. Unfortunately, this was not quite the case. The snow on the north side was well compacted and set powder snow on the south side, but very early in the day it was soup. The snow cover didn't quite freeze through in the night from Thursday to Friday and so the turns in all expos except the north were a sluffy affair. Avalanche bumps from the warming of the previous days spoiled the downhill fun a little from around 2000m, but the beautiful scenery made up for it. In the shady area in the afternoon, there was already a crust of harsh snow from around 1500m, but it was not yet stable.

We were already a little too late for the descent from the Zugspitz summit via Schneefernerhaus to the ski area. Crossing the steep sections is no longer recommended except early in the day because of the risk of wet snow slides. We went down a bit late and it wasn't completely wet yet, but I wouldn't have gone down an hour later. We had hoped that the new world would be a bit more sheltered, but the sun was shining in there too and when we got in at around 2pm, it was water skiing time here too. We didn't dawdle and went down quickly. We lost a lot of time with a wedged rope at the abseil point and one wet snow avalanche after another came down the west face. Today was a wake-up call that the high winter is slowly approaching and you should finish your tour in good time. Tip. The 2nd stand after approx. 30 m. It is easy to reach and free of snow and could prevent the rope from getting stuck in old pitons when pulling off over 3 corners, as happened.

Overall impression

Fine scenery. Too late for good snow. North side would have been better today. If it radiates well one more night, there could also be good skiable firn snow.