Snow report Livigno, 03/01/2019

Snow condition

Above the treeline, the snow surface is strongly wind effected and with irregular grooves, the wind activity effects increase with the elevation. On windward slopes and close to the ridges, the snow is very hard; only on Northern wind sheltered slopes the snow is loose. On Southern slopes, the snow surface is uniform, the melt freeze crust on top of the snowpack has typical spring conditions: hard in the morning and gradually getting wet with the warming. On isolated Northern slopes, within the middle part of the snow cover, persistent weak layers are recorded. The snowcover thickness is higher than the seasonal average.

Snow quality

The snow quality was not so exciting, except for Southern slopes; where the snow surface had spring conditions: hard in the morning and gradually softer with the warming and nice to ski. Elsewhere breakable melt-freeze crust and windy snow surface, alternates each other's, which were not easy to ski. Only on shelter and shady slopes, it is still possible to find some centimeters of loose snow nice to ski.

The main problem has been wet snow avalanches. The strong warming during the day, caused the increasing of avalanche danger level during the warmer hours of the day. Still there was a problem of persistent weak layer within the snowpack, but localized to few slopes only on Northern aspects. We registered little avalanche activity, mainly natural gliding avalanches, medium sized, on Southern slopes. The avalanche danger degree was 2, Moderate, on all the elevations, February the 22 TH and February the 23 TH . The rest of the week (until Thursday the 28th), spring conditions influenced the snowpack stability, with danger level increasing from 1-Low to 2-Moderate, with the daily warming. Only on Wednesday the 27TH, we had a peak of warming, with avalanche danger that reached degree 3.

Overall impression

Actually the snow conditions in terms of snow quality are not soo good, except for Southern slopes where it is possible to find nice spring conditions! Hopefully, the next week will bring some new snow and bring us back to winter!