Snow report Ammer Mountains, 03/05/2017

Snow condition

The amount of snow is low. Even on the north side, there is usually not enough to start from the valley and so skis have to be carried in some cases. The southern sides are already snowed out up to summit level and mountain pine belts in other exposures are not snowed in either. Last night's snowfall meant a few centimetres of fresh snow in the southern Graswang valley. In the afternoon, this snow had already melted away in the valley due to the warm temperatures today. In regions above 1500m above sea level, this snow, together with the fresh snow from the weekend, lay on a stable snow cover and thus formed a very good basis for skiing. There was up to 20cm of powder snow on the exposed slopes, which was great for skiing. It started to snow during the afternoon and several centimetres of fresh snow fell on the mountain in a short space of time. The snow line in the southern Graswang valley was between 900 and 1000 m above sea level. As we wanted to try something out today, we had to carry our skis up to around 1500 m above sea level. With a different choice of tour, however, it would also be possible to carry much less or not at all.

Snow quality

The snow quality naturally depended heavily on the altitude. Above 1500m, however, the snow was brilliant. There was lightly settled powder snow. On the descent, the frozen old wet snow slide or drifts demanded a little attention in some places. The situation could improve further with the new snow.

The situation is quite favorable. Nevertheless, attention should still be paid to the strong wind influence (cornices, drift snow...) from last week. It was also very warm today in sunny exposures, so wet snow slides are likely to become an issue again tomorrow with the increase in fresh snow.

Overall impression

Although I wrote last week that there's not much left to do in the Ammergau mountains, I have to admit that with a bit of carrying you can still do some nice tours in great conditions.