Snow report Zugspitz Arena, 03/26/2016

Snow condition

The amount of snow was considerable and a lot of fresh snow fell, especially during the night from Friday to Saturday. Due to the strong wind, it was difficult for me to determine the exact depth of the fresh snow, as the slopes were at different heights. At 1600 m above sea level it was perhaps 20 cm. The very high temperatures yesterday and today had a strong impact on this fresh snow. In the valleys, the snow has actually already disappeared and the south-facing slopes are slowly drying out again.

Snow quality

There were many different types of snow yesterday and today. Powder can still be found on shady and higher slopes. The strong winds of the last few days have also created a windblown snow cover in many places. However, the sun had the greatest influence on the snow quality and so the snow cover was already wet again at midday below 1900 m in exposition east, south, west. So today we were mostly skiing in slush or wet powder snow.

The situation was extremely precarious, especially yesterday. Due to the strong sunlight during the course of the day, numerous wet snow avalanches came down from the rock faces. Some of these triggered smaller snow slabs and reached a surprising size. In addition, ascent and descent tracks were washed over several times. The situation was better today, but we were already back in the valley by midday and couldn't observe the exact development in the afternoon. I would also keep an eye out for drift snow, as the snow has been heavily transported over the last two days.

Overall impression

We had two great days in the Mieminger mountains in beautiful weather. However, the touring options were very limited.