Snow report Tannheimer Valley, 03/21/2018

Snow condition

In the valley: just enough! There was an amazing amount of fresh snow overnight. In the valley at least 10cm, further up then quickly much more, which is now successfully covering up the empty spots, stones, ... On the mountain: north-facing from approx. 1200m, still plenty of snow. Free choice of route possible, but here too there is a danger of sharks on blown-off edges and ridges, and above approx. 1400m there is an above-average amount of snow.

Snow quality

Fresh Pow, on a supporting base. Almost perfect if it had more binding to the base. More on this in the avalanche situation section!

The fresh snow, approx. 20cm above 1500m, has largely fallen without the influence of wind, but lies almost without bindings on a hardened and quite hard layer of old snow. When making tracks on steeper slopes (>30°), it is almost impossible to find a foothold without crampons. With crampons, you still often slide downhill with your skis and a good packet of fresh snow. You always have to step in several times until the edges hold. On the descent, you can easily trigger quite large loose snow slides. Depending on the steepness of the slope, these will not come to a halt so quickly. We have encountered this problem on all slope exposures above approx. 1500m. If this was still manageable yesterday (-> corresponding CR), caution and def. behavior is advisable from today onwards.

Overall impression

Not bad for the end of March. An amazing amount of fresh snow overnight, some very heavy snowfall in the mornings, quite cold and no wind, visibility often very limited due to clouds and fog, but a brilliant high winter experience with lots of fresh pow.