Paznaun valley on 28.03.2021 | Sumedum

Snow condition

Descent to Kappl only possible on the piste - but there is also a south side on which you can ski down to 1200 meters. Above 1800 meters there is a free choice of routes in the terrain depending on the snow conditions.

Snow quality

In itself, it would have firned up - but as almost everything was covered with snow during the last snowfall, there weren't too many slopes without old, disturbing tracks. The snow cover hasn't frozen really thick yet either, varying slightly depending on the exact exposure, but usually only a few centimetres. This meant that several centimetres were immediately soft. On the ONO side, there were nice turns with dust on crust at 2700 meters.

Typical spring conditions with the course of the day to be observed. At 2 p.m. we ascended again with skins on a south-facing slope with up to 30 degrees at around 2000 meters, there was often a hissing settling noise directly around me when I was making tracks. There are already old chutes in many gullies and slopes, nothing new was to be seen today. On the east-facing slopes at 2700 meters, there are some snow slabs from a few days ago with a depth of a few cm.

Overall impression

On the sunny side, the firn at altitude should improve from day to day. The snow conditions and powder snow are certainly not getting any better. We were actually planning to do the contest face, but due to the thin snow cover and the limited choice of routes at the top due to snow bumps, we decided against it - we'd rather do it when it's more rewarding :-)