Snow report Andermatt / Gotthard, 04/07/2019

Snow condition

For descents up to the trunk there are 4 stars, powder up to the trunk 5. The massive snowfall from the end of last week is no more than powder on the trunk but otherwise very impressive in the region. Every little slide is a threat and every plop is a difficult task to get up again.

Snow quality

From super surfy, creamy old powder at the top of the Cavradi to the infinitely deep swamp in the flat ascent area of the Rhine source over slightly crusty, wind-cooled photo snow, everything is there.

Phew, as I said, everything that slides is pretty energetic because even a turn that breaks through the top layer into the damp old snow is a small threat with 1.5 meters of overflow height. Not everything that has fallen is down yet and with the mild temperatures nothing is freezing. In addition, it was mostly overcast on the WE so that the whole thing is soft to flowing. It's a bit different above 2400. The higher altitudes seemed reasonably dry until yesterday and you should think very carefully about which steep slope you want to drop into. We skipped the summit slope of Cavradi to look good on the "photo powder" slope next to it, and the picture of the avalanches below the Gemsstock middle station is from Friday. Spontaneous descent through three layers at 14h down to the bottom.

Overall impression

The overall impression of the PG-CRler weekend makes up for a lot. Overall, it was very hard to use the dump organized by the Oracle this weekend. After all, podium places were awarded for the massive Face des Bec de Tschamut station. Some PG-Corler had to give up without a Belgian spinning top at the PIZ painter and instead celebrated their HAPPINESS at the foosball table or circled around the table tennis table until 4 a.m. even without a shingle. But yesterday was really good again. Ascent in snowfall with sunshine, summit ascent in mild temperatures and windy conditions with light snowfall. Surfing down in the April sun and baptizing the Rhine in sunshine and snowfall. 5th star for coffee on the pass road powered by Tippspiel, fantastic!