Snow report Zugspitz Arena, 03/16/2017

Snow condition

As expected, the amount of snow in Mieming is rather low on the south side. We skied from Obermieming to the forest path turning point below the Gachen Blick at 1300. And if it weren't for all the avalanche cones, chutes, formed ice balls..., you could do quite well on skis. In fact, we actually skied the entire ascent, with the exception of a few meters. Our actual goal was the Hochplattig. However, due to the risk of avalanches, we turned around and climbed the Schafkopf as an alternative. As far as I can tell from afar, the Stöttlreise looked pretty good in terms of the amount of snow, except for the avalanche cones.

Snow quality

We didn't find the perfect firn we had dreamed of. Instead, there were old avalanche cones and avalanche debris on all the slopes, which meant that the downhill fun was somewhat dampened. However, short sections without the influence of avalanches were very nice to ski.

Even though the LLB (read in retrospect due to the early start) did not confirm our assessments, we subjectively considered the situation to be relatively precarious. As all the slopes were covered in wet snow avalanches and avalanche debris from the last few days, the temperatures were already very high in the morning and the snow cover was completely soaked under a barely load-bearing layer of harsch (at approx. 2200m), we abandoned the tour to the Hochplattig. During the ascent to the Schafkopf, we heard the sound of an avalanche, but were unable to locate it. All in all, I've rarely seen so many relatively new avalanche cones and slab avalanches (in the last 8 days) as I did today on the tour and in the surrounding mountains.

Overall impression

I have to admit: with better local knowledge and with hindsight, a different route would probably have made more sense. However, we still had a great day in beautiful weather in incredibly beautiful surroundings.