Snow report Zillertal Alps South, 05/18/2020

Snow condition

With a little commitment, the east-facing descent is still possible down to just under 2000m. On the south and west sides, the snow line is significantly higher (min. > 2500m, depending on the slope also a lot higher) and there is still good snow on top of the glaciers. The firn triangle also offers a continuous descent from the ridge exit. However, the wall no longer has much to do with the older pictures of a continuous snow/ice wall that can be found on the internet.

Snow quality

In the hope of finding some powdery snow, we chose a high north-east face. Unfortunately, we didn't find any powdery snow on the tour, and we skied the firn triangle at 10 am. The uppermost part (approx. 3300m), which slopes more to the east, was already wet at this point. The wall then quickly changes to a more north-easterly exposure. There it was just soft and grippy enough to allow a safe descent. On the descent we traversed somewhat exposed above the rock band, our north-facing ascent route below the rock band to lookers left was still completely rock-hard, below the wall then good firn up to approx. 2700m, between 2700 and 2400 then increasingly wetter snow, below 2400m then better slush again and below 2200m already compact summer snow. High altitude data without guarantee, except for the wall all east-facing exposure.

There have already been a few wet snow avalanches from rocky terrain on the east side. With the daytime warming, you should definitely leave early, depending on the exposure. We were rather late for the uppermost, completely east-facing section. The old snow problem could also still be present on the north side. Yesterday there was an avalanche on the northern flank of the rear Spiegelkogel in Ötztal (3300m altitude, north-facing exposure, steepness at the start > 45 degrees). Link with two pictures of the frighteningly large avalanche:https://www.meinbezirk.at/imst/c-lokales/riesenglueck-fuer-zwei-innsbrucker-studenten_a4073865?fbclid=IwAR0BjEtp_HOwcs-_O9uVMaOfcqSQ1e75tUNX6u7QA56uACVp0XRFalls there will soon be a new blog entry from the LWD, you should definitely pay attention to it.

Overall impression

An eternally long tour, but in a beautiful area and with a small but steep north face at the end.
Since the winter rooms are currently closed, you have the choice between lugging a sick amount of luggage and splitting the tour over 2 days, or you can do it as a day tour from Breitlahner. We opted for the first option and the tour still felt very long :D
But at least we moved the board a bit in the no-fall zone again. In combination with a cozy bivouac, a beautiful glacier landscape and a good crew, the overall impression is positive.