Allgäu Alps West

Still trigger-sensitive snowdrift accumulations at high altitudes

Nocturnal hours: star-studded skies, very cold: -11 to -6 degrees, colder in the high valleys. Wednesday: high-pressure front conditions, with easterly air current, dry air and sunshine all day long. Easterly winds can be bothersome. At 2000 m: -6 degrees. Moderate to brisk easterly winds.

High-pressure front conditions will make the coming days sunny. Temperatures will remain wintery. Avalanche danger levels will diminish.

Still trigger-sensitive snowdrift accumulations at high altitudes

Considerable avalanche danger prevails at high altitudes. Avalanche prone locations occur in wind-loaded steep terrain, behind abrupt discontinuities in the terrain, and in gullies and bowls, Small to medium, in isolated cases also large-sized slab avalanches can be triggered even by minimum additional loading, i.e. the weight of one sole skier. Whumpf noises and glide-cracks in the snowpack are signals of imminent danger. Activities in backcountry terrain demand experience in assessing dangers on-site. In addition, on steep, seldom-tracked shady slopes at high altitudes, more deeply embedded layers inside the snowpack can be triggered by large additional loading. Below 2200 m on sunny steep grassy slopes, glide-snow avalanches are possible.

Fresh snow and drifts were able to settle at low and intermediate altitudes, and consolidate. With ascending altitude this process requires longer. Fresh snow and snowdrifts often lie deposited atop unfavourable old snowpack surfaces consisting of surface hoar, melt-freeze encrusted or softened layers. Bonding of fresh snow and drifts to these layers and also inside the snowpack itself is frequently poor. At high altitudes on steep shady slopes there are still older unfavourable intermediate layers inside the snowpack which are not visible to the naked eye. Naturally triggered avalanches confirm the proneness to triggering of the snowpack.