Snow report Lötschental, 04/11/2019

Snow condition

This four-day tour began in Leukerbad with the Gemmi cable car. Arriving at 2300m, there was no shortage of snow. The tour went from the Gemmi Pass to the Laemmeren Hut on Thursday, followed by a day trip in perfect weather on Friday from the Wildstrubel over the Tote Ebene to the Rothorn (picture 1 with a view of the Matterhorn) with two excellent descents to the north: The first over the Schneejoch to the Laemmeren glacier and then from the Daubenjoch below the Schwarzhorn (picture 2) to the hut. On Saturday the route followed to the Steghorn and after a descent from the Strubelegga to the Chindbettipass and via Rote Totz to the Schwarenbachhuette. On Sunday, another magical descent to the north in the Plattenhoern (picture 4) to finally return to the Gemmi Pass.

Snow quality

The snow quality is very different if you draw a line from the Wildstrubel to the Rinderhorn: To the south of it we skied in powder snow in northern slopes and over firn in the sunshine, to the north, however, a sometimes four-centimetre-thick, but still breaking hardpack has formed - even in the northern direction between Strubelegga and Chindbettipass (picture 3)! However, the other northern descents make up for this unexpected disappointment.

The temperatures were quite cool, so we couldn't see any avalanche activity even in the afternoon, which is probably rather unusual for mid-April.

Overall impression

Four stars for a great four-day tour of the CAFGI with several exercises for self-rescue from a crevasse and first-class north descents. Cheers to the Valais!