Snow report Kaunertal, 12/17/2019

Snow condition

start today south of the main ridge, north-facing tour, in the area of the kaunertal mountains, at 0°C and fog, at 1800m. there about 40cm, well-set old snow. quite heavy snow until above the forest line (about 2200m), without wind influence. from about 2600m quite blown off and wind-capped. in the summit area many snow-covered sharks. there also only limited route choice possible.

Snow quality

today we found the best snow conditions of the past 3 days. rain up to about 1500m. the whole day. rising to about 2000m towards the evening. from 1800m, well-set old snow. easy to ski, even in the forest. above that, up to about 2600m, fine pow. above that, all blown off, gullies blown in and unpleasantly wind-covered. in some sections, even wearing.

the south tyrolean 2er goes ok in blown-in channels, in ridge layers, very brittle snow. it is easy to create cracks. the resulting small-scale floes were, however, up to about 40°, still no problem today. some older loose snow slides and smaller snow boards in the ridge area were still visible. there is, where there was no wind, up to 50cm, well-set old snow and near the ground there is also this built-up layer, with a thickness of about 5cm.

Overall impression

despite a storm in the summit area and fog at the start, the sky was still blue and the descent was quite nice, with reasonable amounts of snow and conditions. there was also a 3000 meter peak and a bearded vulture circling directly above our heads. that's worth 3 stars.