Weisseck, Muhr Valley

Fresh wind slab forms snow slab on weak old snowpack

Fresh wind slab forms snow slab on weak old snowpack

The avalanche risk is considerable above the tree line and low below. A soft snow surface and surface hoar are further overlaid by strong southerly foehn with fresh wind slabs. Heat input leads to a better formed snow slab. Medium-sized slab avalanches can easily be triggered by individuals in some places, especially from west to north to east, but also in a few places in the and south sector. If fresh wind slabs are disturbed, there is a high likelihood of avalanches breaking through to deeper layers. The old snowpack is poorly built up across the board: Avalanche prone locations are barely recognisable and require a defensive route choice. Take particular care near transitions from a little to a lot of snow and in the blown-in entrance areas to steep gullies. Remote triggering is possible in isolated cases.

The snowpack is highly variable and areas with little snow alternate with considerable snowdrift accumulations. In general, there is either a surface crust or fresh layers of drift snow on top of older, often hard packs of drift snow, which are in the initial stages of kinetic metamorphism. Fractures usually occur close to the crust, which forms the transition to the completely angular old snowpack. Under this crust, the old snowpack consists mainly of deep rime and angular forms, which are interspersed with other crusts in areas with more snow. On the ground, snow from early winter can sometimes be found in the form of a hardness melt-freeze crust.

High cloud fields will soon gather on Wednesday and the light will become increasingly diffuse. In the late morning, it will start to snow lightly on the main Alpine ridge, with very brisk southerly winds (peaks 60 to 80 km/h) blowing in the high alpine regions. By the afternoon, 5 to 10 cm of new fallen snow is expected in the Hohe Tauern and the snowfall will intensify towards the evening. At 2000 metres around -3 degrees, at 3000 metres around -6 degrees.

The avalanche risk increases slightly with new fallen snow and wind.