Snow report North chain, 02/25/2021

Snow condition

The snow conditions are still good for the normal ski tour route to the Hohe Munde. You can easily start with skis from the parking lot at just under 1200m. The mountain pine terrain above the Rauthhütte is still well covered in snow and the tour runs almost exclusively on the east side. On south-facing slopes it is of course much worse.

Snow quality

We left at 10:15 a.m., east-facing from just under 2600 m. The upper part is a bit rough due to old tracks. If you stay away from the old tracks (a bit more on the north-east side), you can still make some nice turns, but at this altitude there is still no firn on the east side. For us it was moist to wet powder snow. Further down (estimated below 2000m) there was also a bit more firn on the east side. Below the Rauthhütte, the terrain is similar to a piste anyway, which was either nice and soft or still icy and frozen, depending on the sun. Fortunately, the former was often the case, but if you're looking for firn, you should head south (and not too flat) and it was sometimes very icy on the ascent, so crampons were essential today!

Pay attention to the time of day when it warms up, start early and finish tours early. Depending on the exposure and altitude, you should be really early, especially on the southeast and east side, and a few wet loose snow avalanches were seen on the east side. Some of them were triggered by skiers. The track depth of some lines shows that not everyone puts much stock in good time management.

Overall impression

Nice preworktour to the Hohe Munde!
Although it is not a lonely and unknown tour, it is a striking mountain that you should have climbed in winter.
Relatively challenging for a normal ski tour. Safe walking with crampons is required, especially the uppermost part is very exposed above the gorge. There are even no-fall hairpin bends in it :)
From the summit you have a wonderful view, which was somewhat clouded by the Sahara dust today. But the sunrise was amazing!