Snow report Northeastern Switzerland, 03/09/2019

Snow condition

The actual start was at 1200 meters at the valley station of the Glattalp cable car. Due to an ominous prohibition sign, we parked the car too early and so our start was at 1100 meters. As a result, we were not the first on the mountain but the last, because the Swiss are probably better at interpreting signs.

Snow quality

It rained a long way up. The snow was lazy up to around 1800 meters and became even lazier as the day progressed. The snow stuck to our skins and made our muscles lazy. We were actually only out and about in the northern sector and above 1800 meters it got better, but it never got really powdery.

It was windy and drifting snow was described by the SLF as the main source of danger. It's hard to imagine that such heavy snow can be driven. From 1 p.m. onwards, there was a lot of rumbling due to wet snow avalanches.

Overall impression

Parking the car too early, snow that was lazier than a sloth, skis that turned into concrete planks, legs that turned into jelly and having to switch to an alternative summit (Raustöckli) made me suffer and despair on the ascent. Nevertheless, the descent in the upper third was surprisingly good, especially because the sun came out for a short time just at that moment.