Snow report Pitztal, 05/08/2021

Snow condition

Good snow conditions on the glacier, the crevasses are well closed, so that some ski tourers were tempted to make some questionable lines through glacier breaks. On the south side, it's already quite bare far up, but a descent into the valley (via Taschachferner and Taschachtal) is still possible if you get there early enough. I have heard that it is also possible to leave the ski area via the emergency route.

Snow quality

The snow quality depends very much on the exposition, altitude and exposure. In high north and north-facing locations, there is still some settled, wind-influenced powder. Wherever the sun reaches for a longer period of time, a light cover can be seen, which turns into broken snow at lower altitudes. Due to the strong warming, this also applies to lower snow-side locations.

No spontaneous avalanches were visible during the day. As we were still on the Taschachferner the next day (09.05.), we were able to recognize a snow slab that had spontaneously released during the night (northeast, approx. 3,300-3,400 m, ~ 45 degrees). Drift snow is mainly in the north to east sectors, the danger is also shown by the avalanches in the LWD blog from 08.05. Caution is definitely advised here and with the future warm snowfall, restraint is the order of the day for the time being.

Overall impression

Having climbed the north face of the Wildspitze and slept on the glacier, could the weekend get any better? Unfortunately, yes, if the north face of the Hinterer Brachkogel had presented itself in skiable conditions on Sunday. As this was unfortunately not the case, we just had a nice glacier hike in fine weather