Snow report North chain, 02/18/2023

Snow condition

The warm temperatures have taken their toll on the snow cover, which has never been really thick this winter anyway. As a result, the 3-seater Stütze lift closed again at 12 noon due to the snow conditions, after the surface had already peeked out again in some places on the piste. The cirque and cable car gully are still easy to ski, with the odd rock peeking out in a few places. The entrance to the cable car channel looked a bit rockier. In general, the snow conditions unfortunately look more like early April, in the last 10 years I have never seen so little snow on the Nordkette at this time of year. It also looks bad on the north side of the Karwendel. Pine fields are all still open, ridges completely blown away. A sad sight :/

Snow quality

Quite pleasant firn on the piste from 10 am. In the terrain it quickly became very soft and boggy.

A sliding snow avalanche on the eastern slope started at 11 a.m. and buried a small part of the piste, fortunately no one was caught. Wet loose snow avalanches and sliding snow avalanches are certainly the main danger on the sunny side at the moment.

Overall impression

Did a few nice laps in the slush and firn on the Nordkette and checked out the current snow conditions. We urgently need a good pack of fresh snow, otherwise it will unfortunately be a very short season on the Nordkette :/ Cross-country tours only make limited sense at the moment, where there might be firn there are some wet snow slides down and/or there is no snow.