Rätikon West

Caution urged in little-tracked shady terrain and towards fresh drifts

Caution urged in little-tracked shady terrain and towards fresh drifts

Near-surface weak layers are still prone to triggering, esp. on seldom-tracked shady steep slopes. One sole skier can trigger a small-to-medium loose-snow or slab avalanche. Apart from the danger of being buried in snow masses, the risks of being swept along and forced to take a fall require adequate caution. On steep grass-covered slopes with sufficient snow on the ground or atop smooth ground, isolated small-to-medium glide-snow avalanches are possible. In rocky terrain, increasingly frequent slides and small loose-snow avalanches are possible.

High-altitude shady slopes have small snowdrifts atop often faceted weak soft layers, bonding is often inadequate. At night a breakable crust forms, sometimes capable of bearing loads. On steep north-facing slopes, there is still powder. The old snowpack is well consolidated. On sunny slopes and at lower altitudes the fresh snow will fall on bare ground, the snow is often moist. Below 1500m there is little snow on the ground.

A night of mild temperatures and foehn wind. On Saturday, very windy. Sunshine will often penetrate the clouds full of dust from the Sahara desert, thereby creating diffuse light conditions. Temperatures will drop. At 2000m: +4 degrees. Winds will be moderate, stronger in the foehn lanes, from the southwest.

As temperatures drop, slighlty decreasing avalanche danger