Snow report Zinal, 01/07/2018

Snow condition

I saw it two years ago with much less. In the lift line, a two to three meter high wall is noticeable in places. Almost all of the big boulders can't be found in the snow.

Snow quality

From 2300 it is chalky and powdery. The felty wind drifts are also quite nice to ride, just a bit dull. The wind cover is not really massive and can be penetrated relatively well. Underneath it is a 5-10cm thick crust of rain and wind and rather unrideable.

Well, on Friday it was still a four. And in the storm during the week, almost every slope spontaneously went down. The entire upper slopes in the Val d'Hérens look like they've been hit by an earthquake. Large avalanches on all medium to steep slopes. The uppermost areas have been blown free by the wind. - The new avalanches in the area are not too big. The rain and wind crust from Friday prevented anything worse. In general, it no longer looks very tense. But some of the small hollows in the snow have put a stop to any plans.

Overall impression

As I said, we stayed close to the lifts on the flat terrain. After everyone accepted this, we were rewarded with a sunny day and creamy cruiser runs and it turned out to be a really good and long day of skiing.