Snow report Ticino, 11/24/2013

Snow condition

According to the SLF, the Maggia and Bedretto valleys are currently among the "lowest" areas in Switzerland. That's right! An on-site inspection confirms the information from the snow map. It already looks very wintry. But with a lot of bad luck, you can still catch stones. Although the snow distribution is quite irregular due to the strong NE winds, a robust base has already formed in many places, which even the wind can't harm.

Snow quality

Surprisingly good despite the winds! We found beautiful powder on south-facing slopes in the lee of the wind. The north-facing slopes are spectacularly carved by the wind, often hard as a rock, covered and barely powdery. Deep and perfect pow in the forests.

The large amount of fresh snow from the last period of precipitation combined with the strong winds has led to extensive accumulations of drift snow. These seem to be slowly consolidating well. This is probably also due to the fact that there are still hardly any weak layers in the old snow. Nevertheless, a defensive approach should be taken at the moment.

Overall impression

A dream day! The Alps are already in perfect winter dress in this part and it's not even December yet!