Snow report Hinterer Brochkogel, 04/06/2022

Snow condition

Below-average snow conditions at all altitudes. Sharks lurk in rocky terrain, the glaciers (fractures) could do with a bit more snow and even on the steep faces, the bare ice peeks out or hides under a few centimetres of snow. There is generally little snow on the north face of the Brochkogel and the same applies to the Taschachwand. There is very little snow on the entire wall and the skiable area is rather narrow in places. The variants in the middle section of the Taschachwand are not skiable, everything is too rocky. All in all, it's enough for touring in the area, and you can also get out of the Taschach valley on snow throughout. Unfortunately, there is not (yet) enough snow for a long and good (steep face) season.

Snow quality

Good powder snow can still be found in high alpine terrain on slopes that are not too exposed to the wind. On flat north-facing glacier areas, the powder has held up well above 3000m. Unfortunately, the last snowfall was still too cold for the high alpine steep faces and there was little to no fresh snow in them; on the Brochkogel we skied down the north face on concrete snow and ice. On the somewhat flatter, north-facing steep faces, which are more sheltered from the wind (Taschachwand), there was still nice powder snow. In all other exposures, the sun has already worked the snow well and further down it gets wet quite quickly.

The LWD has issued a 1 all day above 2600m and a 2 from the afternoon onwards. I would agree with this assessment, there are currently only small-scale drift snow packs in the high Alps and at lower altitudes wet snow is to be expected as the weather warms up during the day. With the strong to stormy winds and some fresh snow in the next few days, the situation will probably get a little worse.

Overall impression

At the start of the high alpine steep face season, we took 2 beautiful faces with us, although the downhill fun on the Brochkogel north face was clearly limited. On the other hand, the snow on the Taschachwand was much better than expected, although this line also has only just enough snow and in some places there is not much snow on the ice. Deductions can also be made for the Taschach valley, which is not exactly snowboard-friendly.