Snow report Upper Valais, 12/29/2018

Snow condition

At the top at 3000 meters there is a lot of snow, down to 1500 meters natural snow with a lid on top. The descent is possible, but unfortunately more of a slide slope (perhaps quite good for the turn of the year) than suitable for guided turns.

Snow quality

The first 500 m of descent are actually super fluffy! There's been wind from all directions the last few days, up here on the Altstaffelhorn it seems to have been coming from the west the last few days - so the eastern slopes are really powdery. Down in the forest, even mouse-high powder is rideable; between 2500 and the tree line, unfortunately, more crushed ice than fun.

SLF issues level 2. We don't observe any spontaneous avalanches today, see 1, 2 old snow slabs from 26.12.2018. Still dangerous drift snow accumulations at altitude.

Overall impression

Spontaneously great people with a lot of local knowledge, a descent with a total of 1500hm, of which about 1000 are pretty good. (=really cool!), and discovered a potentially new larch forest area - which offers a lot of potential for the next snowfall! Surrounded by the queen of the Valais, the Weisshorn - a pretty good day for an end with KaffiLutz ;)