Snow report Pitztal Glacier, 01/07/2023

Snow condition

With a little goodwill, 2 stars, as the descent via the emergency route down to the valley is possible and glaciers that are not too crevassed are already quite easy to close. Caution is still required away from the glacier bed, but with a defensive skiing style you can get down quite well there too. Apart from a short stream crossing, the emergency route has snow throughout, although it is very icy and there are a few small stones on it.

Snow quality

From pressed powder to set powder snow, to hard and blown away, you can find pretty much all types of snow in the open terrain at the moment. If you keep an eye out, you can still find slopes and fields with good snow. However, it's unavoidable that you'll also find some poorer snow. The emergency track is very icy and not much fun to ride.

In the high Alps, the snow cover is strongly influenced by the wind and is rather irregular. Watch out for drift snow packs in steep terrain. Otherwise, according to the LWD, there is still a problem with old snow on the north side above 2400m, although the susceptibility to disturbance is said to have decreased.

Overall impression

We made the most of the good weather and even found some halfway decent snow. Although everything has already been said about the current situation in Tyrol when you have to go on tour in high alpine, glaciated terrain at the beginning of January to get down without worrying about coming into contact with rocks. It's about time we finally got some snow.