Snow report North chain, 01/18/2021

Snow condition

If this continues, conditions will be similar to the nordstau winter of 2018/2019. Would estimate around 1 m of fresh snow since Sunday morning. With the no less massive amounts of fresh snow of the past week, this results in a very good base. Everything is skiable in the trees, even if they are very narrow. Sometimes you can get onto tree stumps or similar, but only if you ride completely without the handbrake. You can get to the Hungerburg without any problems. There are rumors that the descent to IBK was also possible;) As the cirque was closed, it is not possible to make any more precise statements about the snow conditions further up. From a distance, however, it looked similarly good there. As an area exposed to the foehn, this could change over the next few days.

Snow quality

Super powder, definitely bottomless! I never thought I'd say this, but today it was almost too much. It's easy to get lost in the flat and confusing terrain. Visibility also suffered from the faceshots. Of course, I'm complaining at a very high level.

Still to be assessed critically. Avalanches in the gullies of the cirque. Otherwise, no avalanches triggered by skiers observed. We stuck to the narrowest possible trees today. However, a settling noise was clearly audible here too. Compared to last week (Friday), however, it felt like a relaxation. We had heard a much higher frequency of subsidence noises on the Nordkette. Above the tree line, a clear wind influence is recognizable. But again, this is difficult to assess from a distance and with limited visibility.

Overall impression

We actually wanted to take it easy on the 3-person descent with skins, as we hadn't expected the area to open. But it opened at half past eleven, just as we were about to start. So we had powder turns until the lift closed, even though there were quite a few people there. However, once there is a certain amount of snow on the Nordkette, many new possibilities open up. The result was a relatively stress-free afternoon with never-ending faceshots until our legs could take no more.