Snow report Lech Valley, 03/16/2017

Snow condition

Worse than last year at the same time. Between Simms waterfalls and Roßgumpenalpe you have to unbuckle a few times, above the Roßgumpenalpe again. There is enough snow at the top. The summit slope of the Krottenkopf has little snow and you have to make your way down by stepping sideways and traversing. But I've never experienced anything else there before.

Snow quality

With good timing firn. Caught the summit slope of the Krottenkopf today at 12 noon with pretty good firn. However, there were always clouds and a cool wind blowing, otherwise the slope firns up earlier. From below the Öfnerkar it was really deep slush, hardly skiable in places. We were already in the lower part of the Kratzerfeld on Thursday evening, "Dust on Crust". It was okay to ski, but nothing more.

I can't say anything about the north-facing weak layers mentioned in the LLB, but we changed our tour planning again at short notice. That's why we turned well below the last steeper upswing in the Kratzerfeld. Apart from that, wet snow slides are an issue, a lot of things look older but there was also a slide in the Mädelejoch, for example, which I think was from Tuesday or Wednesday. As already described by skiandi, very large snow slabs can be seen. I've seen several hard-to-believe fracture propagations below rocky ridges. Very impressive.

Overall impression

Nice tour, really lucky today with the descent from the Krottenkopf I'm curious what the rain will leave, it could be tight at the bottom...