Werdenfels Alps

Beware of thinly snow-covered and poorly visible obstacles.

Beware of thinly snow-covered and poorly visible obstacles.

The avalanche risk is moderate above the tree line and low below it. The main problem is wind slab avalanches. Medium-sized slab avalanches can be triggered even with a small additional load. Some avalanche prone locations are located above the tree line on steep slopes with aspects from north-west to north to east, as well as in snow-covered gullies and bowls.

Occasionally, medium slab avalanches can also be triggered in persistent weak layers. This is particularly conceivable on very steep shady slopes above 1600 m with a high additional load, for example if a small superficial avalanche breaks through to deeper, weak layers.

Some of the fresh wind slab lies on surface hoar, soft powder or thin wind and melt-freeze crusts prone to triggering on the old snow surface. Poor snow cover test results indicate that it is still possible to trigger snow slabs in deeper, built-up layers at higher elevations (above approx. 1500 metres). On the south side, there is often no closed old snowpack up to the higher elevations. Overall, there is little snow.

The risk of avalanches increases further with precipitation and wind.