Hochschwab Mountains

Persistent weak layer problem and some wind slab!

Persistent weak layer problem and some wind slab!

The avalanche risk is assessed as moderate above 1,800 metres and low below that. Slab avalanches can be triggered in some places even with little additional load and can reach medium size when breaking through the persistent weak layer. The danger areas are still located in the north to east aspects behind ridgelines and terrain edges as well as in the entrance areas to steep gullies and bowls. In the Niedere Tauern and in the Eisenerz Alps there is also fresh wind slab snow, which can be triggered as a snow slab in the northern sector (adjacent to ridgelines).

In the southern Niedere Tauern and in the Eisenerz Alps, a few centimetres of new fallen snow or wind slab have been added. This covers surface hoar and older wind slab in the higher elevations. In the northern and eastern exposures, the snowpack is still weakened with faceted crystals and floating snow (persistent weak layer problem!).

The rain and snowfall will subside before midnight and it will become partly soft in the second half of the night. There will still be some clouds in the morning on Monday. During the day, increasingly sunny mountain weather will prevail. The temperature at an altitude of 2000 metres will be between -6 and -3 degrees. The temperature at an altitude of 1500 metres will be between -4 and -1 degrees. Brisk winds with gusts of around 50 km/h from south to north-west. The snowfall level is in the valleys.

Very sunny again on Tuesday with an increasingly southerly flow. No significant change in the avalanche risk is expected.