Nock Mountains

Weak layers in persistent weak layers are prone to triggering!

Weak layers in persistent weak layers are prone to triggering!

The avalanche risk is considerable above around 1800 metres and low below. The situation is precarious for winter sports. 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 southern sector. Remote triggering is also possible in isolated cases. If wind slabs are disturbed near the surface, 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. In particular, be careful near transitions from a little to a lot of snow and in the entrance areas to steep gullies. On sunny slopes, small loose snow slides can spontaneously detach from very steep slopes during the daytime changes.

A bound snow slab of former new or drift snow overlays soft layers (e.g. surface hoar, faceted crystals) or older, hard wind slabs. The snow surface is at least moistened up to around 1500 metres, even higher on sunny slopes. The snow surface can cool down overnight and is crusted can form and hardness in the morning. In general, areas with little snow alternate with considerable snowdrift accumulations. Breaks usually occur between the fresh and slightly older layers of drift snow or near the crust that forms the transition to the completely angular old snowpack. Under this crust, the old snowpack consists of deep rime and angular forms, which are interspersed with other crusts in areas with more snow. Snow from early winter can sometimes be found on the ground in the form of a hardness melt-freeze crust.

The clouds slowly clear during the night. Tomorrow the sun will mostly shine, often even unclouded. The wind will remain weak, at 2000 metres the temperature will be around -2 degrees Celsius and at 3000 metres around -9 degrees Celsius.

The persistent weak layer problem remains.