Snow report Ammer Mountains, 12/31/2018

Snow condition

After a few days in the area, I see the situation as follows: The amount of snow in the Ammergau mountains is low. The snowfall of the last 2 days has ensured that there is a reasonable snow cover on the mountain. At around 1600m above sea level, around 15cm of fresh snow had fallen by midday on 31.12 (there had already been snow at this altitude before). Unfortunately, this is not the case in the valley. In both the Graswang and Ammertal valleys, there is still no snow or only a few centimetres at most. The snow line on Monday afternoon was around 1200-1300m above sea level. And so much of the "New Year's Eve" precipitation came as rain. This means that ski tours are only possible to a limited extent. When planning tours, the terrain and exposure must be taken into account. Nothing works on a southern exposure. And when starting from the valley, you either have to use the pistes, stay on forest paths or carry your skis. But even at medium altitudes, contact with the ground must be expected when skiing downhill in the forest and on stony ground. Mountain pine belts are usually not covered in snow. Nevertheless, something is possible if you choose the right tour.

Snow quality

The snow quality was quite good at medium altitudes. There was quite nice powder snow there. Below 1200, however, the snow was wet and heavy.

There were major drifts and the fresh snow fell with a lot of wind. However, we were cautious today and I couldn't see any dangerous spots.

Overall impression

Unfortunately, the snow cover is still very thin and the snow line during the precipitation around 22.12 and 30.12 was too high to leave any significant snow near the valley. Scheinberg and the tours on the Pürschling can be done with restrictions; in the northern cirques I would expect that the skis still have to be carried. Hopefully the precipitation period on Wednesday will bring more snow at lower altitudes.