Snow report Kitzbühel Alps, 05/17/2019

Snow condition

Kaiser Reloaded II, Griesner Kar, we are still at least a month behind. You can still find your way through the meadow below on snow. In the forest above, a short stretcher, then from the timber camp onwards a very good situation, in the cirque still meters deep, even if the mountain pines are slowly coming out again.

Snow quality

Below 1800m, also purely north-facing slush, braking in places. Above that, the Fön has also done a lot of damage, depending on how often you ski on them, the north-facing gaps are icy (Schönwetterfensterl) to deeply softening, but still slightly frozen over at 11. If I hadn't trudged up to the Regalpscharte today, I wouldn't have been able to ascend on the compact sliding surface of an NS avalanche. Powder, as promised by my colleague bergjunge yesterday, has definitely not been below 2300m since (very) early this morning, even in the full-day shade.

At 8:00 am it was already 9°C at 1000m (LAWIS measuring station), which says it all: most of the medium-sized wet snow avalanches from the walls probably came yesterday. But there was still some dangerous rumbling here and there today. Crossing east-facing slopes with a catchment area at 11 is definitely a matter of taste, thank God the gourmets were 2 minutes earlier than the avalanche today, and the next group 5 minutes later :0. But with a descent at 12 from the Regalpscharte (NW at the top, then N) I was actually clearly too late.

Overall impression

With mega weather, but also more competition than almost two weeks ago, today was another great day in the Kaiser. The fresh snow is already old snow (almost) and there are no more hidden obstacles. This time I also made it to a summit, my debut on the Regalmscharte with quite a technical descent, followed by sulz cruising and hardly any carrying. bergjunge underestimated the May sun, but no matter.