Bregenzerwald Mountains

Fresh snowdrifts at high altitudes. Glide-snow/wet-snow avalanches due to warmth.

Fresh snowdrifts at high altitudes. Glide-snow/wet-snow avalanches due to warmth.

For winter sports enthusiasts, predominantly favorable conditions prevail with moderate avalanche danger. In high ridgeline terrain, in gullies and bowls, freshly generated snowdrift accumulations require special attentiveness: they are often blanketed by fresher snowdrifts and are trigger-prone. Danger zones increase with ascending altitude. One winter sports enthusiast can trigger a medium-sized slab avalanche. Apart from the dangers of being buried in snow masses, the risks of being swept along and forced to take a fall also need consideration. Beware cornices on ridges. Glide-snow avalanches are difficult to forecast or estimate. They can trigger in all aspects below 2600 m at any time of day or night and grow to medium size. Caution below glide cracks. Loose-snow slides possible on very steep sunny slopes.

At high altitudes, older snowdrift accumulations lie mostly atop a stable old snowpack, on steep shady slopes, often atop soft layers. Covered drifts at high altitudes often lie atop a snowpack with weak near-surface layers, are thus prone to triggering. The warm ground and wet snowpack base reinforce gliding snowpack movements. Below 1400 m there is very little snow on the ground.

Nocturnal hours: Dry, only partially clear skies. Friday daytime: Mild, intermittently sunny. Zero-degre level at 3000 m. At 2000 m: +7 degrees. Light-to-moderate W/SW winds.

Slight perturbance on Friday night will bring minor snowfall above 1500-1800 m, accompanied by temporary winds and lower temperatures.The danger of dry-snow avalanches could increase somewhat on Sunday. Danger of glide-snow/wet-snow avalanches not change much with the lower temperatures.