Snow report Zugspitz Arena, 11/20/2017

Snow condition

Mieminger: We were there yesterday on 19.11. There was very little in the valley. Everything was nice and white, but there was only 15 cm of fresh snow on the meadows at the starting point. It got better and better towards the top, so that an average of 30cm came together, with most of it being fresh snow from the last few days and only a few cm of older snow. Stone contact is almost unavoidable and if you see the skis as a utility item, you can take the slightly better ones. In my opinion, the snow conditions are slightly worse than in the Kalkkögeln, where you simply notice that something has arrived from the south. Unfortunately, we couldn't see what it looked like further up, but Salta was there the day before. On 19. 11, 20 cm accumulated over the course of the day. It stayed there until we reached the tree line. A lot of wind further up. 2-3 starsKalkkögel: Been there twice so far last week. Both times went well from the starting point. On the last 200m to the Scharten it got worse and worse. A lot of blow-off here and that's where you get the most scratches. I think there is a bit more here than in Kühtai, at least that was my impression from the pass. But scratches are also unavoidable. But really good for November. 3 starsHochfügen: Was there three times before the last snowfall. Slopes in great condition. Even off-piste there is now a pretty good basis. But before the snowfall of the past few days, it was almost impossible to make any detours. The snow situation feels like last year in mid-January. Station currently shows 33cm, without much growth in the last few days.Chiemgauer: Nothing is possible from the valley yet. From 1600 there would be a basis. But it's not yet worthwhile on skis. We did part of the traverse the weekend before last. There was almost too much snow at the moment, it was quite demanding and we had to do a lot of cleaning. 1 star

Snow quality

Mieminger: Very good up to the tree line. Already falling with wind influence and some small sleet. But very easy and cold. It was really nice to ski. Further up there was more wind, but it didn't change the quality that much. 4 starsKalkkögel: We mostly had cold powder with a lot of wind, but with an eye you could almost only ski good snow from top to bottom. We were only on the shaded side, on the sunny side one day of sunshine followed by a light cover. 3 starsHochfügen: Too long ago for a current assessment. But the pistes are going very well and so you can get your legs in good shape here and escape the hustle and bustle on the glacier. The lifts have been open at weekends since last week. Chiemgauer: I can't say much about the quality, only that, as expected, there is only bad ice on the traverse so far, which has to be removed and doesn't help with climbing.

Mieminger: The last snow fell with wind and in several phases. Could recognize 2 drift snow layers. New snow very irregularly distributed. Drift snow was therefore the main problem. Were very defensive only up to the tree line. Kalkkögel: On 18.11, the drift snow already looked quite well connected, as it was already a bit older. I was more concerned about the possible old snow and possibly embedded surface frost. We dug several times and couldn't trigger anything even with an ECT. No particularly pronounced old snow problem on our tour. But I would still take the whole thing with a grain of salt, there is no LLB out yet and you usually don't have a good coherent impression of the snowpack. There are certainly places where there was a lot of snow early on. But a lot has already been done in similar expo days before, but better to be careful 3 times so early in the season. I'm looking forward to the first situation report. I can't say anything relevant about Hochfügen and Chiemgauern.

Overall impression

A better November for a long time. But we are still so early in the season that it's better to wait until we have a clear picture, especially of the avalanche situation. The assessment that a single person can provide from a tour is only valid to a very limited extent - if at all.
The weekend was good for me, but it clearly still falls under the famous Instagram conditions. www.instagram.com/jo_pinoo/