North and center of Aran

Weakly bonded old snow requires caution. Fresh wind slabs on shady slopes.

Weakly bonded old snow requires caution. Fresh wind slabs on shady slopes.

The new snow and wind slabs of the weekend are poorly bonded with the old snowpack. Dry avalanches can as before be released easily. These can be released in near-ground layers also. Sometimes these are large. Stability tests and whumpfing sounds and the formation of shooting cracks when stepping on the snowpack indicate this situation. As a consequence of new snow and a moderate to strong southwesterly wind, mostly small wind slabs formed on Tuesday in particular adjacent to ridgelines and in gullies and bowls. The fresh wind slabs can be released easily in particular on shady slopes. In addition an increasing number of small and, in isolated cases, medium-sized gliding avalanches are possible. The current avalanche situation calls for experience and restraint.

As a consequence of mild temperatures and high relative humidity the snowpack settled during the last two days. Distinct weak layers exist in the old snowpack in particular on little-used, rather lightly snow-covered west, north and east facing slopes. Tuesday: The southwesterly wind has transported a lot of snow. In particular in the regions of the south exposed to the foehn wind easily released wind slabs formed. At intermediate altitudes there are 70 to 100 cm of snow, and even more in some localities. At elevated altitudes snow depths vary greatly, depending on the infuence of the wind.

Thursday: Slight decrease in danger of dry avalanches.