Snow report Sölden, Ötztal, 02/25/2020

Snow condition

Phew, I was a bit shocked at how little there actually is. The starting point for our tour was Vent. From there, you can start on the ski slope without any problems, but you have to find your way off-piste. Especially on the south/west side, there is only limited snow even at 2000m. In all other exposures there is a reasonable snow cover up to about 2000m, so you can ski down without any problems. We ascended from the Breslauerhütte via the Mitterkarjoch. There are quite a lot of stones on the Mitterkarferner. Skiing down here is no fun at all. The wind has removed quite a lot of snow here. The Taschachferner made a good impression, there was a closed snow cover in the corner around the Brochkogel and no crevasses were visible. The same applies to the Vernagtferner.

Unfortunately pretty bad. We didn't find anything like powder snow. As it has always been very windy in recent weeks, most of the snow has either simply disappeared or you are skiing on crumbling hard snow or windswept terrain. Further down (from about 2400m) the snow is partly transformed into deep layers due to the warm temperatures.

According to the LLB, warning level 2 for the altitude. On Monday, the north and east exposures were particularly affected. When we climbed up on Monday, however, there was a lot of drift snow on the south side. In the Mitterkarjoch itself there was a lot of drift snow. I wouldn't ski down here at the moment. However, as we climbed most of the way via the section on the rock that was secured with wire ropes in summer, it went quite well. At the moment, I would also recommend the route via the climbing point. Otherwise, the snow cover made a very stable impression.

Overall impression

Unfortunately, the weather didn't play along as planned. Originally, we had planned to descend via the Mitterkarjoch to the Wildspitze on Sunday and then via the Brochkogeljoch to the Vernagthütte in order to reach the Gepatschferner via the Guslarjoch the following day. On Sunday, however, we had to break off after just a few meters in altitude. It was simply too windy and visibility was too poor. On the Pitztal Glacier, the wind was blowing at up to 120km/h. On Monday, we made it at least as far as the Mitterkarjoch and the descent over the Vernagtferner to the Vernagthütte. But even here it was very windy in places. All in all, it was still 4 great days!

Attention: There is virtually no firewood left in the winter room at the Vernagthütte. The hut should only open again next week.