Nordkette on 08.12.2021 | adiseitz

Snow condition

The mountain pines are not yet closed and you can forget about the trees. In the Arzker Reise outside the mountain pine fields, a good half meter of snow, increasing with altitude. The descent from Rumer Alm back to Hungerburg is only recommended with rock skis, but the ascent is possible with skins.

Snow quality

Below approx. 1600/1700 m there is a slight cap, but it is still easy to ride. There was probably a bit more sun yesterday. This is particularly pronounced south/south-west. Further up and especially south-east good powder snow. Very strong winds above 2000 m towards the ridge.

The foehn was blowing from the south all day today and has continued to bring a lot of snow. Drift snow therefore definitely present. Due to the southerly wind, it's probably mainly deposited on the north side. Another 20-30 cm will fall on top of this snow tonight... So be careful tomorrow! I've specified 'old snow problem' because that's what the LWD says for this region. In our opinion, however, this was not relevant for the chosen south-facing tour on the Nordkette. According to the webcam archive, there was no more snow here at the end of November. As the snow layer responsible for the old snow problem is from the beginning/mid-November, we came to the conclusion to exclude this problem for this tour.

Overall impression

Beautiful tour in the Arzler Reise with unexpectedly good weather. The strong wind on the descent was a bit unpleasant, but was rewarded with some good turns. With the predicted fresh snow, I'm now optimistically predicting an upward trend, at least for tomorrow. Due to the weather and avalanche situation, I'll definitely be heading back into the trees.