Snow report Grisons, 01/30/2016

Snow condition

It urgently needs a lot of snow. There is hardly any snow on the south and east sides, bushes and grasses are sticking out. In the higher elevations, the snow is heavily blown, still stony in places.

Snow quality

Yesterday we found some really good powder on the north side, but it was set. But you have to look for it, a lot of it was off-piste. It was best from the Gaudergrat towards the Schiferbahn valley station. On the south side, the snow was icy and crusty. Today there was some nice powder in the upper part, but until the afternoon there was still too little snow to cover the old tracks and the hard ground. In the lower part, however, the snow was very wet and stuck to the skis.

very delicate. There is a very delicate weak layer in the entire Davos Klosters area. The snowpack is constantly breaking down. Slabs have fallen everywhere on this weak layer, and some of them still looked very fresh. Yesterday, a skier was fatally injured by an avalanche on the Bühlenhorn. And this was 10 days after the last snowfall, but the Bulltin still had a considerable avalanche risk in this area. With the fresh snow and the storm, the situation will get worse. The weak layer could keep us busy for the whole winter.

Overall impression

We had a really good freeride weekend. After all, there was probably no better place in terms of weather. Yesterday it was nice for a long time, today it snowed right down to the valley floor, while otherwise it rained in the west at over 2000m. Hammer powder conditions look different, but it was quite acceptable.