Snow report Zillertal Alps South, 03/31/2021

Snow condition

The snow conditions are what you would expect in late March/early April on the south side. Above approx. 1,600 m, there is a continuous blanket of snow, at least on the forest road. Above 1,800 m, this also applies to most of the slopes, although the snow cover here is very thin in places and the odd stone is already sticking out. A descent is possible on the forest trails up to approx. 1,600 m, but this mainly depends on the exposure of the trails and whether they are shaded by trees.

Snow quality

The snow quality is very good, provided you have the right timing. Above approx. 1,800 m, the snow cover is well frozen and stable on the surface. With the sunlight and high temperatures, the snow then softens relatively quickly during the course of the day, so that good firn can be found here. Depending on the exposure, altitude and slope steepness, the firn will of course appear a little earlier or later!

No avalanches were observed today. On all sunny slopes, however, you can see that the sunlight and the temperature are doing a good job: almost every slope had at least a few old wet snow avalanche cones or the south-facing cornices were partially broken. An early start and accordingly an early end to the tours is definitely recommended here.

Overall impression

Beautiful weather, good sunrise, good firn, what more could you want? Of course, a blanket of snow that goes all the way down to the valley, so you don't have to carry your skis up or downhill, but it's practically April and at 1,300 m on the south side you can't complain. We skied down from 2,600 m today, whereby our slope was exposed more to the south and slightly to the south-west. A descent at 10:40 was perfect, only the first 100 m were still hard, then perfect firn awaited us up to the forest path at 1,700 m. However, it should be mentioned here that the slopes were rather flat. The steepest part of the slope had a maximum of 35°, but on average the slopes were probably steeper at around 25°-30°. This means that steeper and more east-facing slopes have to be skied earlier.