Snow report North chain, 03/18/2021

Snow condition

The Seegrube was probably once again one of the hotspots in Tyrol during the north jam of the last few days and has even left the Arlberg behind. 1.5m of fresh snow has fallen at 1900m in the last few days. 40-50cm of snow has fallen at the Hungerburg, making it easy to ski down into the valley on the forest paths. However, this will also melt away quickly if the sun shines in more. Further up, things are going really well again even in the somewhat denser forest, this applies to altitudes above approx. 1400-1500m. However, there are a lot of fallen trees lying around (see photo), so you should be careful. Above the tree line, the snow conditions are very good, pine fields are well snowed in and steeper, rockier slopes also have a relatively large amount of snow.

Snow quality

The finest, ultra-deep powder snow. The 1.5 m of fresh snow from the last few days is making itself felt with unbelievable depths and endless face shots. We could have done with a snorkel today, although the description above only applies as long as there is no sun. The sun came out a little more in the late morning. As a result, the snow on the slopes where the sun was shining became heavier. Fortunately, this was only the case a little further down (<1500m) and only a little later. On our last descent into the valley, however, the snow further down was already much heavier and a bit wetter. So if you want to find good snow tomorrow, you should avoid slopes where the sun has already shone in today.

Due to the huge amounts of fresh snow, you should of course exercise a little caution. However, the fresh snow made a good impression today, as there was no wind influence to be seen or felt at all. It was a completely different story the day before yesterday on the Arlberg. I can only judge the situation on the south side up to 1900m altitude. The Hafelekar remained closed today. So it's possible that the wind had more influence further up near the ridge. Despite blasting, there were no avalanche cones to be seen either in the cable car or in the cirque. You should watch out for possible sliding snow avalanches. And when the sun is shining, you should also watch out for loose snow avalanches. These can probably reach a considerable size due to the large amounts of fresh snow.

Overall impression

A huge powder day on the Nordkette, probably the deepest day of the entire winter. There were relatively few people out and about by Nordkette standards, and thanks to the many opportunities to ski down into the valley, it was spread out. After the slopes to the 3er pillar were tracked, there were also plenty of first lines to be had in the various forests and trenches. If you can reconcile giving yourself 5 stars for a powder day in the area, today would definitely have been one of those days.