Snow report Tannheimer Valley, 01/21/2017

Snow condition

The amount of snow in the Tannheim mountains is rather low for this time of year. Apart from the precipitation of the last snowfall period (January 5-14), there is hardly any snow. Nevertheless, ski tours (also south-facing) can be started from valley locations. The mountain pine belts are also only partially snow-covered. On the shaded side, and without the influence of wind, the snow is still powdery in places. In most cases, however, there is a mixture of wind and melting snow, powder and other touring techniques. The daytime warming caused the snow cover in the valley and in sunny locations to thaw during the day.

Snow quality

On the descent today, we encountered a wild mix of powder, tracked snow, snow affected by the wind and melted snow. Overall, however, it was nice to ski. On the south side, the snow cover thawed during the day up to 2100m above sea level, so you have to reckon with slush or a layer of hard snow.

As the old snow problem was not so pronounced at our altitude, the conditions seemed quite safe to us. The drift snow now seems to be well connected to the snowpack. Quite steep descents have already been made (even if there is no connection). Due to the warming, we have observed snow slides on slopes exposed to the sun.

Overall impression

As we went on a very nice ski tour today in the beautiful weather, we can start the new working week tomorrow with satisfaction.