Werdenfels Alps

Circumvent snowdrift masses and glide-cracks

Circumvent snowdrift masses and glide-cracks

Avalanche danger above 2000m is considerable, below that altitude danger is moderate. Slab avalanches can be triggered even by the weight of one sole person. Danger zones occur in steep ridgeline terrain in all aspects and in wind-loaded gullies and bowls. At high altitudes isolated avalanches can grow to large size. Glide-snow avalanche activity is increasing. Glide-snow avalanches can trigger naturally at any time of day or night, particularly on south-facing steep grass-covered slopes at intermediate altitudes. They can grow to medium size.

Fresh snowdrift accumulations are being generated in ridgeline terrain at high altitudes on west-facing slopes. Elsewhere in all aspects and in general at high altitudes, loose powder covers the snowpack consisting of older drifted layers, often deep. Inside the snow masses of recent days in the uppermost half-metre of the snowpack there is often a trigger-sensitive weak layer beneath a marked melt-freeze crust. During the course of the day the snowpack surface will become moist on sunny slopes, during the nighttime hours a thin melt-freeze crust will form. At low altitudes the snowpack is moist down to the ground. Gliding movements over smooth grass-covered slopes have been observed increasingly frequently.

Avalanche danger levels will diminish in the stable weather and mild temperatures towards the end of the week.