Snow report Zillertal Alps South, 04/21/2019

Snow condition

On the Pfitscher Joch road, you can currently drive just past the transition from the asphalt road to the forest road. Someone with a BMW four-wheel drive tried to go further and got stuck 20m further on. It will still take some time to get to the 1st hairpin bend by car. There is still a lot of snow on the forest road up to the 3rd hairpin bend, which prolongs the approach to the walls in the rear Pfitschtal valley, but conversely means that the snow conditions there are still good, but you shouldn't take too much time on the north face of the rear Weißspitze, as the narrow section in the lowest part is already narrow (see photo). If there is no more snow, it will be a challenging rock climb.

Snow quality

There is still good, settled powder snow on the north side. It's good for stomping uphill with a bit of track work, for steep descents it was just perfect, and at the very top of the west-facing summit slope (down from 3400m) and generally where the sun shines on it for longer, the powder no longer holds up even at high alpine altitudes.

Many wet snow avalanches have already come down. Due to the high temperatures and the strong sunlight, you should still watch out for wet snow slides, as the clear night meant that the snow cover was able to freeze through. This meant that there was a greater risk of falling in the morning.

Overall impression

In addition to the north faces of the Hochfeiler, Hochferner and Griesferner, there is another north face in the Pfitschtal valley, although it is rather unknown. With a wall height of 1100m, it is quite long, but rather flat, and the north face of the rear Weißspitze is also worth a visit. The wall in the overview photo in the center of the picture has a maximum of 45 degrees on two slightly longer passages. At the top before the saddle, the wall flattens out considerably, so it's even worth switching to skins there.
The lower rock face needs a lot of snow if you want to ski down the wall again.

We found very good conditions on the wall today. The lower rock face is still snow-covered and skiable throughout. Most of the descent is still good powder snow. There is a slide down in the lowest part, so you have to be a bit careful there.

According to the cars at the parking lot and the tracks from the Griesscharte, there were probably also some people on the Hochfeiler north face. There were also many tracks in the west face of the Hochfeiler (see photo).