Snow report Monte Rosa / Zermatt, 02/22/2014

Snow condition

Binntal: The closer you get to the border with Italy, the more the wind has raged. If the amount of snow wasn't above average for this region, almost everything would have been swept clean ... In gullies and hollows, however, the drifting snow is good for skiing. Lötschental: Generally well snowed in. Thanks to the short but unexpectedly intense snowfall in the night of 23.02., another 20-30cm was added.

Snow quality

Contrary to expectations, skiing was a pleasure even in the windswept part of the Binntal. Lightly packed fresh snow in gullies and hollows, interspersed with rough passages, delighted us. In the Lötschental, on the other hand, we were able to fully enjoy the powder pampering program. After midday, however, the sun was already strong enough to make the fresh snow wet. Light and cold powder on shady slopes gave us some of the best runs of the season. A crust is to be expected on south-facing slopes.

In the Binntal, the main danger comes from fresh drift snow. The amount of fresh snow in the Lötschental was unexpectedly large, which prompted the SLF to raise the danger level to considerable on February 23. Many smaller slides were observed on south-facing slopes. On the shady north side of the Lötschental, the huge Wiler avalanche also made its presence felt.

Overall impression

Such surprises could happen more often! Despite a rather stormy Saturday in Binntal, we discovered an area that had previously been very little visited by skiers, with a multitude of challenging lines far off the red line. The Lötschental impressed us once again. The shady runs from Petersgrat were fantastic and almost exclusively skied by us... ;)