Snow report North chain, 02/09/2020

Snow condition

The two snowfalls of the last few weeks have also brought some more snow to the Nordkette. The descent to the Hungerburg at 800m is easy on the meadows and paths. There is only one place where the snow becomes less and turns into slush. At the top (1900 - 2300 m altitude) there is considerably less than usual for early February. Most of the pines are not covered in snow. The gullies from the cirque are easy to ski but not completely snowed in at the top. Towards the east there are many empty areas due to the south and east exposure.

Snow quality

Hardly any powder to be found on the south-facing Nordkette. It was 11 degrees in the valley today and even on the mountain it felt more like spring than February. The snow was mostly quite difficult to ski in the form of a mixture of broken and refrozen powder and slightly thawed chutes. Only southeast between 2200 and 1900 quite fine slushy, almost firn. As soon as the sun is gone, however, everything quickly becomes hard and unrefined again.

According to LLB level 1/2, some cornices can be seen on the ridges. Much has also been blown away. With the beautiful weather of the last few days, however, everything looks quite settled, which could also be guessed from the course of the avalanche warning level. We were able to observe a few superficial loose snow slides (see photos). However, these are probably a little older.

Overall impression

Between the two storms, today was a little taste of spring. But the snow quality was already pretty poor. But now that fresh snow is on the way, we can look forward to a well-set base that should make it possible to ski down to the Hungerburg in the fresh snow falling on Mon/Thu.