Snow report North chain, 02/15/2020

Snow condition

The snow conditions are in the upper 3-star range. There is now also enough snow on the steep, rocky slopes to ski without the handbrake on. However, you still have to watch out for stone contact on ridges that are more likely to be blown away and in some cases there is only a little fresh snow on rock. Exposed, west-facing slopes have less snow than east-facing slopes. It also looks better in gullies, and at least on the descent from the Brandjochspitze you can easily ski down the mountain pine fields into the trenches. However, denser mountain pine fields are not yet completely covered in snow. In addition, the snow quickly becomes less at the bottom, from Gramartboden you have to carry for 15-20 minutes until there is enough snow.

Snow quality

Due to the south/southeast orientation, an early start was essential today. Departure from the summit of the Vordere Brandjochspitze (2559m) at 9:30 am. First south-facing, then a little more southeast-facing. We found beautiful, settled powder snow in the exposures. However, due to the sunshine and the high temperatures, the snow was already a little wet at this early hour. You shouldn't have skied down much later on the south side, where the sun didn't shine in for so long, the snow was even more powdery, and at the bottom in the south-facing trench (from about 1400m) there were already good beginnings of firn.

According to the LLB, there was a 2 on the Nordkette today with an indication of a north-facing old snow problem and drift snow above 2000 m. We therefore decided on a purely south-facing tour destination. The snow cover there made a settled impression. The drift snow seems to have bonded well, at least on the south side. Later on, we could already see some wet loose snow avalanches from steep terrain on the south side.

Overall impression

Skiing the Vordere Brandjochspitze in powder snow had been relatively high up on my wish list for a long time. Today, the conditions were almost perfect. The ascent was even better than expected. With the conditions, you can get relatively far up with skins and when trudging, you could stick to the more snow-covered areas. On the descent, you probably rarely get better conditions.
Even if it takes a bit of effort to set your alarm clock to 0:30 am at the weekend, it's worth it when you experience the sunrise high up and find great downhill conditions :)