Snow report Hochschwab East, 02/26/2022

Snow condition

As usual, the forest was very well snowed in right down to the valley. The mountain pines at the top were not particularly troublesome either.

Snow quality

In the valley "Dust on Crust". Crust somewhat fragile. Still soft old snow in the shady middle section, with approx. 5 cm of new snow on top. Above the tree line, the fresh snow lies on concrete snow. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong gully for the descent (blown out and hard snow in contrast to the soft ascent gully)

The wind brings new drift snow in combination with snowfall of varying intensity, but due to the relatively small amount of new snow overall, the intensity is limited. During the evening hours, quite heavy snow showers down to the valley (700m). Sleet was repeatedly embedded in the snowfall - quite typical for this winter and possibly problematic (formation of a potential weak layer). Wind was only disturbing at the very top.

Overall impression

Beautiful descent (flat slope at the top, then "natural bob run" followed by a nice and wide, somewhat steeper gully at the bottom with a flat run-out into the forest, for insiders: Bachbauernrinne). However, a poor choice of descent, as the ascent route (neighboring gully) would have offered better snow.