Snow report Jungfrau Region, 01/29/2019

Snow condition

There is a lot of snow for the season. On the valley floor, there is still around 30-40 cm of well-set snow in many layers. It's worth mentioning that the snow conditions in the First area are also significantly higher than Kleine Scheidegg/Männlichen this year. But even there it is good. The snow tends to decrease towards the west. But the Schilthorn also received plenty of snow during the last snowstorm (picture) and we know from Austria that even more is possible. Therefore only 4 stars.

Snow quality

Super light fluffy snow in all exposures today. No wind tracks. There was about 30 cm of fresh snow at the top last night. But the night before there was also about 40 cm.

The avalanche danger is quite tricky. I triggered a smaller slide/snow slab slide 2-3 times today. In steep terrain, all the fresh snow is coming off on top of the old layer. The two layers are (still) very poorly connected. At this point, it's worth remembering that many tourists today try their hand at off-piste skiing without a backpack and almost certainly without an avalanche transceiver... And this in terrain that was not always safe and far away from a piste. There were also some very poor skiers off-piste, some of whom could barely manage a turn off-piste. But the people concerned probably don't care about these lines anyway, because they don't read them anyway.

Overall impression

I had to work in the office today and was only up there briefly during my lunch break and skied Lauberhorn, Happy Valley, Salzegg, Honegg and Männlichen down to the valley. The usual routes were already very busy by lunchtime. But there was still plenty of space... In Happy Valley, for example, and White Hare wasn't even on track until 2pm. Tschuggencouloirs have all been skied.
More about the variants in the Freeride Guide Jungfrau Region at www.freerideguide.ch