Snow report Lech Valley, 01/12/2018

Snow condition

There was about 2-3 cm of fresh snow overnight. This has not changed the general situation. The rain has destroyed about half a meter of snow. There's snow from about Pfronten. In the Tannheimer Tal there's some, but in the forest it's getting scarce again. Today I went on a ski tour to the southernmost summit of the Tannheimer. I could just about manage, with 2x unbuckling in forest belt passages, for about 50m.

Snow quality

After everything I'd read this week about ice crusts, the choice fell on a south-west-facing ascent, in the hope that it would also firn up there on a Friday afternoon ski tour. It did and the choice was pretty good. The guidebook only mentions one key passage, but it's probably only clear when the snow is hard or the conditions are icy. In any case, I was quite surprised by its "seriousness". Ascent and descent were no problem today, in perfect January firn. Only the areas that didn't get any sun were rock-hard and correspondingly icy.

According to Lawi level 2, I would even give it a 1. Apart from a few, not yet unloaded, sliding snow chutes, which have to be traversed, everything is currently pretty relaxed on this tour.

Overall impression

The tour is easy to do, but quite challenging in the current conditions. Since it was a first for me (another check mark ;-) and everything went as planned, I'll give it 3 stars. But there should definitely be snow again. There is hope for the coming week ...