Snow report Upper Bavaria, 01/22/2016

Snow condition

Under the influence of strong winds, around 5 cm of fresh snow fell from Friday to Saturday above 1100 m altitude. Unfortunately, this was heavily blown and not so homogeneous as fresh snow. Together with the snow of the last 10 days, the amount of snow is currently quite good and it is possible to ski down into the valleys. There was surprisingly little stone contact.

Snow quality

The snow cover was very strongly influenced by the wind today. The gale-force winds transported both the new snow and the snow from last week. Some of the ridges were bare and the lee side was blown in heavily. On our descent in a north-facing gully, however, we were still able to find reasonably good and skiable snow. It was a mixture of windswept snow, powder and slush in the lower section. I would place the 0 degree limit today at 1200 meters above sea level.

Due to the strong wind, the drift snow problem was quite critical. Today we skirted the key section of our descent near the ridge in extremely steep terrain as the entrance was heavily blown in.

Overall impression

Despite the rain on the drive into the mountains this morning, we unexpectedly had a very nice day of touring. Unfortunately, the expected warming tomorrow will have a strong impact on the amount of snow.