Saalbach / Fieberbrunn on 27.01.2024 | winterkind

Snow condition

The rain and the higher temperatures have had a good effect on the snow cover. Below an altitude of 1000 m, it was already thin on the south side. Exposed north-western exposures are quite blown out.

Snow quality

From top to bottom: A lot of drift snow close to the ridge, followed by a layer of fresh snow knee-deep on a stable base, followed by broken snow (fortunately only a few meters) and finally slightly damp snow.

The NW wind was whistling near the crest and transported the small amount of fresh snow. Particularly close to the ridge, the drift snow lies on a hard base, binds very poorly with it and is therefore very easy to disturb. With the whiteout today in the summit region (which we didn't expect), a serious assessment of the drift snow accumulations was not possible and there are also huge cornices at the moment. That was too exciting for us. We actually wanted to go a little further with skins, but instead we skied down again until the visibility allowed us to assess the situation to some extent. Pay attention to the drift snow near the ridge and the gliding snow activity will increase again in the next few days.

Overall impression

Ein ziemlich gebrauchter Tag. Zuerst verzögerte sich der Start der Gondel aufgrund eines vereisten Seils, dann spielte das Wetter mit einem tollen Whiteout und Wind in Gipfelregionen nicht mit und die Schneequalität war auch kein Highlight. Aber besser draußen sein an der frischen Luft, als nur ambitionslos aus dem Fenster schauen.