Snow report Paznaun Valley, 01/11/2026

Snow condition

Very little snow for mid-January. With a bit of effort, you can wobble around a bit on flat, wind-protected alpine meadows, but as soon as it gets a bit windier, steeper or rockier, you can't really talk about skiing in my opinion. Not that the usual ski tourers and freeriders would let that stop them, but they also hit stones/latsches/alpine roses/etc. with every turn. As soon as you get towards the forest, you can also forget it, at least outside of forest paths. As it was quite windy, it's hardly possible above 2500 m. All in all, piste skiing is probably still the best option, it would have to snow properly again to be able to speak of a basis for further snowfall.

Snow quality

Very good, very light powder in areas protected from the wind and especially below approx. 2200m. The only reason for deducting one star is that it is quite windswept in many areas and goes from pressed to sometimes even minimal wind cover. If it weren't for the problem with the practically non-existent base, you could ski some very nice snow.

According to the LWD, some of the mountains around the Paznaun valley were at warning level 4 and others at warning level 3. We were out and about at temperatures below 30° and experienced two small subsidences with corresponding booming noises, otherwise there were no other warning signs or fresh cracks etc. Other ski tourers and freeriders were out and about much steeper yesterday and today, but I wouldn't have seen any avalanche activity there either. In any case, there was widespread build-up, which was to be expected given the cold temperatures of the past few weeks and the low thickness of the snowpack. Therefore, of course, a very poor base, which is also very inconsistent, again due to the poor snow conditions.

Overall impression

3 stars as it almost felt like skiing for the first time this season. The snow would be really good, but unfortunately there is still no base. The quality of the snow decreases slightly with the wind, but a few heavy snowfalls would be much more important.