Snow report Hintertux Glacier, 11/24/2022

Snow condition

A lot of fresh snow, and it has also snowed all the way down into the valley. At least it looks a bit like winter. However, the off-piste options are still very limited. There are now a few freeride options at the top, but rocks and crevasses are often not far away. Below the Tuxer Fernerhaus, there is still no off-piste skiing. However, snowmaking and snow groomers have been working hard there, so at least the slopes could open up soon.

Snow quality

At the top of the glacier there is about 40cm of fresh snow of very powdery quality and good sinking depths. In some exposed places the wind influence is noticeable, but for the most part it was already very fine for skiing.

A small snow slab was triggered in fresh drift snow in the east-facing terrain close to the ridge. Otherwise, there were a few small cracks (maybe 5cm high) in steep terrain on the north side, which may have gone down during the snowfall or broken within the fresh snow layer. In valley locations, many small sliding snow avalanches in sunny meadow slopes. The danger from crevasses and stones hasn't really diminished either. We were able to observe live how a snowboarder fell 2-3m into a crevasse that was fortunately already well filled with snow and was then able to climb out again on foot. Many sharks were also uncovered by winter sports enthusiasts.

Overall impression

The first real freeride day this winter was definitely not a bad one. The stokeness among the winter sports enthusiasts was unbelievably high and so there was some great powder turns as well as good entertainment. Considering that 3/4 of the people were out and about without equipment or knowledge, fortunately very little happened. Nevertheless, there was a crevasse fall, a small snow slab and countless shredded rocks. The classic Instagrammers with 360-degree GoPro cameras etc. were also well represented, the shots from the best day of this winter, and if you believe the pictures from the last few decades, are already online. It was actually a really nice day of freeriding, although not entirely safe at the start of the season due to the rocks and crevasses, and it was tracked quite quickly.