Snow report Axamer Lizum, 01/08/2022

Snow condition

Compared to the past three winters, the snow conditions in the Lizum are absolutely below average. This is partly due to the strong wind, which blows off a lot, and the generally low precipitation so far this winter. You can get down into the valley everywhere, but you still have to watch out for stones at the top of the cirque. Some of these are only slightly covered in snow or are generally visible. Compared to normal winters, 50-100 cm will probably be missing here (see pictures of the snow depth distribution from 08.01.2021 and 08.01.2022 attached).

Snow quality

The snow quality is good in wind-protected or blown-in gullies, hollows and in the forest. Very changeable on open slopes. Here, hard rain crust alternates with fine powder and little fresh snow with a poor base. You should therefore prepare your knees for changeable conditions on the descent and ski with an eye. Where you find drift snow, it is easy to ski, as long as no one has skied through it before or there are not too many old tracks under the fresh snow.

Traces of fresh avalanches were not recognizable, but the wind was very strong and wind loads were clearly visible. This was particularly the case behind the edges of the terrain and on slopes increasingly exposed to the northwest. The drift snow has already bonded quite well with the old snow in places, but in the cirque the weak layers in the base are of course not as present as on other slopes due to a lot of skiing. The wind direction wasn't really clear today, it was more of a north-easterly wind at first, which then turned to north-west.

Overall impression

Beautiful morning tour in the Lizum. Our actual plan was to walk up from Dohlennest to Malgrubenspitze and from there ski down the gully into the Lizumer Kar. However, due to the strong wind and little snow in the gully, we abandoned the plan at short notice and descended from Widdersberg into the cirque and skied up one of the rear gullies again. There was actually quite good snow in the area protected from the wind, so we didn't come across the rain crust here. The visibility could have been better, but you'd probably have to wait until the afternoon for that. All in all, a fine day's touring, a little cold and windy, but at least we still managed to get some powder.