Snow report Zugspitz Arena, 03/25/2018

Snow condition

Overall, the amount of snow in the Wetterstein and Mieminger mountains is huge. Last week's snowfall added up to 40 cm of fresh snow in places. On our tours in the Alpspitz area and in the western Miemingers, we were able to start from the valley (also off-piste). Saturday and Sunday (and even Thursday and Friday before that) were almost consistently sunny and warm days. This has greatly decimated the fresh snow of the last week on slopes exposed to the sun. Due to the time of year, the south-facing slopes are already partially covered in snow. On the north side above 1800m above sea level, powder is likely to be encountered over the next few days.

Snow quality

I would describe the snow quality as not quite as perfect as expected. Although the perfect powder that fell during the week was still to be found on the north side and on the shaded side, in the other exposures we sometimes encountered powder snow with a cap that was difficult to ski. In addition, there was also broken snow and, especially today, more firn-like snow. I found it rather difficult to assess where the good snow was. Due to the warming, it softened up quite early today and was slushy.

We felt that the snow cover was well settled again and the avalanche risk was therefore rather low or easy to assess. Warming must be taken into account. Wet snow avalanches and wet loose snow slides in southern exposure were also observed on tour.

Overall impression

Two amazing days with the best weather. Due to the relatively relaxed avalanche situation, we have already skied some steeper routes such as Alpspitze Nordwand, Daniel Ost