Lechquellen Mountains

Considerable avalanche danger at high altitudes

Nocturnal hours: heavy cloud, intermittent minor snow showers. In the morning, clouds will disperse. Thursday: extensive cloudbanks will hamper the sunshine intermittently. All in all, conditions will be pleasant, visibility adequate but diffuse. At 2000 m: rising from -4 to +2 degreers. Moderate W/NW winds.

Friday will be very sunny and warm: at 2000 m: from +6 to +9 degrees. At high altitudes and in foehn lanes, strong southerly winds will be noticeably. Danger of dry-snow avalanches will gradually recede. Danger of wet-snow avalanches will increase again.

Considerable avalanche danger at high altitudes

Main danger: fresh snow and snowdrift accumulations and the weak snowpack. Danger zones occur behind abrupt discontinuities in the terrain and in wind-loaded gullies and bowls. They increase in size and frequency during the course of the day. Small to medium slab avalanches can be triggered by one sole skier. Due to rising daytime temperatures and solar radiation the snowpack is prone to triggering. Naturally triggered avalanches are possible in very steep terrain, and if they fracture to deeper layers they can grow to large size. Activities in backcountry demand experience in assessing the terrain and avalanche dangers on-site. In areas with rain impact in all aspects, slides and small wet-snow avalanches can be expected. On steep smooth grass-covered slopes, glide-snow avalanches are also possible.

With ascending altitude, bonding of fresh snow and drifts to the old snowpack surface deteriorates. At high altitudes on very steep slopes the mid-level part of the snowpack has unfavourable layers which can be triggered mostly by large additional loading. Mostly on steep NE/E/SE facing slopes above 2200 m some medium and large naturally triggered slab avalanches were observed on Wednesday in the Silvretta and Verwall. Also artificially triggered avalanches led to large-sized releases. At low altitudes there is only little snow on the ground.