Snow report Yaylalar (Kaçkar Moutains), 02/12/2026

Snow condition

Generally good snow conditions, in the last 5 days there has been a cumulative 30-40 cm of fresh snow in combination with little wind. Apart from some blown-off ridges and saddles where the last 10-30 meters of altitude were rocky, no problems with stone contact

Snow quality

Super powdery snow with a firm base and no potential weak layers. During the course of the day, the snow became much heavier due to the sun but was still great to ski. In the north-west area where the sun shines later, the snow was still much lighter and great to ski on

In the ridge area there is a risk of snow slabs due to the wind, apart from that there is no danger.

Overall impression

A dream day in the Kaçkar Mountains. After a first excursion to Olgunlar in the direction of Kaçkar Dağı, the highest mountain in the Pontic Mountains. There, a side valley could be climbed in a southerly direction up to an altitude of 2900m. The lack of motivation to tour/scramble over blown-out ridges led us to climb a beautiful but slightly blown-out NW slope up to the "Steingrenze" and leave the peaks to the left. The descent was a powder snow delight. After a short lunch break, we climbed up to around 2500m in Yaylalar and skied down through the forest. Due to the sunshine, the powder snow was occasionally crusty, but if you paid a little attention to the choice of tracks, you could easily push away 30-40 CM of snow in the bends even in the late afternoon. All in all, a really fantastic day in Turkish powder.