Snow report Brandnertal / Rätikon, 01/20/2018

Snow condition

In principle, there is plenty of snow, enough to ski down to the valley. Most of the variants are also passable. What is critical, however, are the thousands of pasture fences in the area. These have just been snowed over, but you still come across them on the descent. Result of the last two days: 4 hits.

Snow quality

Here it depends extremely on how you ski and on which slope. On some descents, the snow seems bottomless and you plunge deep into it, splashing in all directions - 4 stars. And then there are the places where the ice pack comes through and you suddenly hit an ice cap or old outcrops of sliding snow. If the descent is right, you can really have fun!

Not exactly without. The region gives a 2 up to 1800m. In some places, however, you can clearly feel that you are skiing in brittle snow, in other places the snow is bombproof. The connection to the old snow layer doesn't seem ideal to me on some slopes. This was noticeable yesterday in the form of slight cracks. Today you could see one or two larger cracks in steep terrain from the lift (+-40°). In the ski area itself we saw 2 avalanches - both in the north to west sector. 2 of the pictures show one of the cracks and one shows the view up into the terrain. The avalanche itself was about 300m long I would estimate.

Overall impression

This year there have already been more 4-star days than the whole of last season. Today was another one. Only the crowds that flock to the backcountry are getting more and more unbelievable. Descents in terrain (according to the Open Slope Map) +- 45°, in blown-in terrain you send small children who go to elementary school at most. In a ski club jacket, of course. This is slowly exceeding a healthy level.