Snow report Alpenostrand, 02/07/2019

Snow condition

A lot has melted in the past week, especially in the previously very snow-covered valleys, but since there was a lot of snow, it's not too bad, everything is still going really well, you can get into all the valleys without any problems, on the south side you will soon have to be careful if the weather stays like this below 1000m. Above the tree line, ridges and crests as well as entire slopes are heavily blown away, and the sometimes really huge sliding snow cracks restrict the choice of route a little...

Snow quality

We had actually hoped to find powder on shady slopes at higher altitudes. However, we quickly had to bury this hope, not only did it rain at over 1800m last weekend, but there was hardly any fresh snow afterwards. It was also extremely windy, so the little fresh snow was blown elsewhere and is not really usable, so we switched to firn, which was a good idea. The steeper southern descent just before 1 was quite good. Not perfect firn yet, but already softened rain crust was also quite nice.

I would assess it as relatively relaxed, above 2000m I would pay more attention to drifting snow, but the problem areas are limited, and you still have to watch out for sliding snow, and also pay more attention to the warming.

Overall impression

At first disappointed by the poor snow quality, it turned out to be a decent day.
Until the next snowfall, you should rely on firn, which can also be found on steeper east to south-facing slopes.