Snow report Upper Bavaria, 03/07/2017

Snow condition

Under the influence of strong winds, around 15 cm of fresh snow fell from Monday to Tuesday at 1800 m altitude. Unfortunately, this was heavily blown and not so homogeneous as fresh snow. In some places, the snow cover measured up to 30 cm of fresh snow, whereas other areas were blown off. Overall, the amount of snow in the Mangfallgerbige is currently rather low. However, it is still possible to ski down to the valleys. The snow cover on the south side has lost some of its thickness today due to the sun.

Snow quality

Most of the snow was still nice this morning: Sometimes a little settled, in other places with wind cover or completely powdery. But overall, the snow cover is relatively strongly influenced by the wind. Ridges were partly bare or overgrown and leeward areas were blown in strongly.

Due to the strong wind, the drift snow problem was extremely critical. Today we aborted the planned descent near the ridge in steep terrain, as the entrance was massively blown in and overgrown. The older and frozen snow base also provided a good basis for the fresh snow to slide down. The fact that this was the right decision was demonstrated by a slab avalanche (size 2) that occurred today in a similar exposure. It was probably triggered by ski tourers near the ridge (see photos). However, we couldn't be completely sure from the valley as we could only see the avalanche cone and a few avalanche edges.

Overall impression

It was a nice day with great weather and fine snow. However, the avalanche situation clouds the picture. Unfortunately, the expected warming and rain tomorrow will have a major impact on the amount of snow.