Zauchensee on 04.01.2024 | winterkind

Snow condition

Ski tour in the Zauchtal. Unfortunately, it started raining right at the start of the tour (!). Fortunately, it was only a brief interlude. Nevertheless, the rain reached up to about 1400 m and even above that the snow was not dry. On the cleared forest path, the thin, damp layer of snow that was still there was enough to get up and down. Due to today's temperatures in the plus range, the rain and the sunshine after midday, there will be one or two stretches tomorrow. Below 1400 m, meaningful off-piste riding is out of the question (long live the forest road). We urgently need some (!) fresh snow.

Snow quality

Up to about 1400 m, the snow was quite fun to ski on. Slightly damp, fast and not a hard surface. I'd describe it as heavily settled powder snow that has drawn moisture for a short time. Below 1400 m, it's best to ski straight lines to get to the car.

In the actual basin (north), where we wanted to do laps, it was no longer possible to make tracks, as the terrain was characterized by numerous sliding snow cracks and considerable sliding snow drops. The increasingly strong wind was only able to move the wet snow minimally.

Overall impression

The thought at the start was to go up and hope or drink a beer straight away. The approx. 400 m were quite nice to ski, especially with wide skis. As for the lower area, all you can say is drink a beer and hope for a decent amount of snow on the weekend. There's nothing left tomorrow.