Snow report Stubai Valley, 01/21/2020

Snow condition

The snow conditions are very changeable. There was more snow than expected in the lower mountain pine terrain, which made it relatively easy to find the ascent even in the dark without necessarily having to catch one of the mountain pine gullies. Unfortunately, it looks much worse further up. Most of the summit structure of the Serles is completely blown away. Even the traverse to the north gully is not completely covered in snow. In the north gully itself, the snow conditions are fine. At the very top, of course, you have to abseil (30m rope is enough), and the second rock step can just about be bypassed riders right (must be straightened very briefly, see photo). Otherwise you still have to watch out for rock contact in the gully. Further down it looks better again, you can easily get back to the forest path that leads to Maria Waldrast.

Snow quality

In the north gully there was about 25cm of powdery snow on a hard base, in some places a little more. You could make some nice turns, but at the bottom of the run-out you would usually get through onto the hard crust. In the very upper part of the gully, the snow is wind-affected and a little rough to ski in places, which is also due to old tracks.

The wind was still blowing hard today and continued to move snow. So you should definitely be aware of the drift snow problem in steeper terrain and avoid blown-in areas.

Overall impression

Seen from Innsbruck, the Serles already looks mighty. As it also has a beautiful north gully to offer, it was finally time to ski it. As the gully will probably be completely tracked out by the weekend, an earlier solution had to be found as a weekend warrior, and so the Serles north gully was available today at a very early time of day.
The early start was rewarded with a stunningly beautiful sunrise and the north gully was also in good skiing conditions, even if they weren't as good as we had hoped. Still not bad for a pre-work tour, of course :)
Beautiful line, which is probably on the list of some Innsbruckers.