Snow report Salzburger Land North, 01/25/2015

Snow condition

Still not too great. Sufficient base from about 1000-1200m on the shaded side, then a few hundred meters higher also in southern exposures. A total of almost 30cm of fresh snow has fallen in the past few days, and another 5cm in the 3-4 hours I was there.

Snow quality

The top 20 cm would undoubtedly have earned 5 stars. I don't think I've ever seen such light, loose, cold, windless, (insert other positive adjectives here), fresh snow in my entire skiing career. However, this had one major disadvantage: you regularly 'fall through' onto the hard old snow cover, at least with a relatively aggressive skiing style. That's why it should either have been 20 cm more or a bit heavier at the beginning.

LLB Bavaria level 1, unbound fresh snow, therefore no danger of slabbing yet (old snow is well set). In contrast to the CRs in neighboring regions, I could see very little wind influence up to 1800m, even in more exposed areas. But that will probably change quite soon.

Overall impression

I thought long and hard about whether to give it 2 or 3 stars, but as all the surrounding regions have recently been awarded three and there is a thicker base in the Reit im Winkl snow hole than on the Geigelstein, for example (see CR Chiemgauer) and roughly the same amount of fresh snow has probably fallen, I give it 3 with a clear conscience. Besides: What could be nicer than watching perfect snow as it silently wraps the ski tips in its soft robe during the ascent - in the beam of the headlamp....hach...(sorry, those who climb for a long time have time for sentimental thoughts)