Snow report Upper Bavaria, 01/16/2015

Snow condition

Pathetically little for this time of year. At the starting point of the tour at 900m there was virtually no snow (apart from the 5 to 10 centimetres that fell overnight). Over the course of the day, another 10cm was added. On the forest road below 1200m it was even possible to carry snow in places! From around 1400m upwards, there is at least a reasonably stable layer of old snow on meadow slopes, with around 10-20cm of fresh snow on top. Between 1500m and the tree line it actually looks quite good, there is a base and the fresh snow has fallen with little wind influence. Above the tree line, the wind has been quite violent, ridges and ridges have been blown off and stones and grass are appearing.

Snow quality

Rather damp at the bottom, powdery at the top. Under the fresh snow cover, however, you can still clearly feel a layer of harsh snow (if not the ground). But all in all, simply far too little!

The Bavarian LWD reports level 1 to 2, which we can confirm. There was hardly any snow at the bottom anyway and as our tour was generally in moderately steep terrain, the situation was not critical.

Overall impression

Wearing skis in January, poor visibility and bad weather, contact with the ground on every second turn - actually a horror. But we've become modest in recent times and are therefore happy about a lonely day in the mountains where we were even able to make a few really nice turns in the freshly fallen snow.