Hochschwab Mountains

Moderate avalanche danger above the tree line. Even a single person can trigger a slab avalanche!

Moderate avalanche danger above the tree line. Even a single person can trigger a slab avalanche!

The avalanche danger is moderate above the tree line (level 2) and low below. In particular, older snowdrift accumulations, but also bonded snow in all aspects can be triggered as a small to medium slab avalanche in some places, especially behind ridgelines, terrain edges and in gullies and bowls, even with a small additional load.

Up to 30 cm of new fallen snow has fallen since Thursday. The snow has been transported to the eastern sectors by stormy westerly to north-westerly winds on a large scale, but all directions can be affected locally. Due to the warming, a bound snow layer is also developing in places where there was previously unbound powder. Weak layers are mainly found between drift and new fallen snow and the old snowpack (unstable layer of faceted crystals). In the foundation of the snow cover, kinetic metamorphism (floating snow) weakens the stability.

It will remain mostly clear on Monday night, with clouds gathering from the west in the morning. A warm front will bring some snowfall to the northern side of the Alps from midday. The frost will weaken significantly and the snowfall level will rise to 1400 metres by the evening. The temperature will rise from -10 degrees in the morning to -1 degrees in the evening. The wind is still blowing strongly from the north-west.

Wednesday will be mild and mostly sunny. Although the warming may lead to some spontaneous avalanches, the avalanche danger is slowly decreasing.