Snow report Andermatt / Gotthard, 04/08/2018

Snow condition

A lot, as another meter was added a week ago. After all, the Gemstock advertises 6 meters of snow cover. As far as the village of Andermatt, the snow cover is mostly solid. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily an advantage at this time of year, but more on that later.

Snow quality

Everything but broken snow, therefore 2nd snow crystals at the top, which are somewhat wind-blown and can be skied in firn, firn underneath, up to 2400 disk paste and rotten snow underneath. Everything exposed to the wind has a load-bearing cover. It firns easily and can still be skied decently from 10:30.

Now to the snow cover: the region is on the verge of a disaster alert. Very large avalanches can be seen everywhere from Sedrun onwards. It has hardly been freezing for days and everything that slides down into the valley in the normal course of the year takes everything with it and becomes considerably large. Whether small wind slabs, warmed slopes or fish mouths in rotten snow. Everything becomes very large and very dangerous. (See fish mouth picture, gone down on 07.04 at 14:30 south slope 30 degrees in the crack, run-out probably 400m long, very fast descent) The region is somewhat at the limit with the situation, the train over the Oberalp Pass had to turn back several times to clear the route with the milling machine. Parts of the road that are not closed are flooded. It is very easy to choose the right time for the ascent, as many things are already soft or collapsing by 8am, as early as possible. It is almost impossible to choose the right time for the descent; if it is just getting decent on the interesting slopes, the rest is already a swamp.

Overall impression

The avalanche situation here makes many activities very difficult, and the changing weather - warm, then cold and strong winds - also makes it physically very demanding. On top of that, the sun is brutally strong and it's not just the snow cover that has to suffer. At least it's nice to take the many breaks in the sun. It's also interval training.