Gstaad

Snowpack

Despite strong winds from the west to northwest, only very localised small wind slabs have formed in the last few days. The surface of the snowpack is usually hard and there is little driftable snow. On south-facing slopes, the surface of the snowpack became moist up to around 2600 m, where a crust froze during the night. There are still isolated weak layers in the old snowpack near the surface above approximately 2500 m, but no human-triggered avalanches have been reported in the last few days. The bottom section of the snowpack is generally stable.

Gliding avalanches are still to be expected. This is mainly the case on east-, south- and west-facing slopes below approximately 2600 m and more rarely on north-facing slopes below approximately 2200 m. These avalanches may be large in regions with a lot of snow.

Weather forecast until Wednesday, 07.02.2024

After a mostly clear night, during the day it will be sunny at times in the south and increasingly cloudy in the north.

New snow

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Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, 0 °C in the west, 2 °C in the south and -2 °C in the northeast.

Wind

There will be relatively moderate, and in isolated cases strong, westerly winds on the northern flank of the Alps and generally in the high Alpine regions.

Weather review for Tuesday, 06.02.2024

It was quite sunny in the west, and mostly overcast with dense veil clouds in the east and south.

New snow

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Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, around +4 °C.

Wind

There were weak, and in the north relatively moderate, westerly to southwesterly winds.

Trend until Friday, 09.02.2024Thursday

During Wednesday night into Thursday, around 5 to 15 cm of snow will fall in the west and north above 2000 m. The danger of dry avalanches will increase slightly. The danger of gliding avalanches will hardly change.

Friday

In the south, heavy precipitation will set in from Friday onwards. The snowfall level will be between 1200 and 1700 m. By Friday evening, around 30 to 50 cm of snow is expected on the Main Alpine Ridge from the Gotthard Pass to the Bernina region and to the south of this at high altitudes. A strong to storm-force southwesterly wind will blow at high altitudes; there will be a strong foehn wind in the north. The avalanche danger will increase significantly, especially on, and to the south of, the Main Alpine Ridge. However, a slight increase in the avalanche danger is also to be expected in the north. At high altitudes, the main danger will come from new snow and snowdrift. Wet and gliding avalanches are to be expected at intermediate altitudes.