Osterhorn Group,Gamsfeld Group

Snowdrifts more easily triggered with ascending altitude

Snowdrifts more easily triggered with ascending altitude

Avalanche danger above 1500 m is CONSIDERABLE (3), below that altitude danger is MODERATE. Restraint and experience in outlying terrain are required. Winter sports enthusiasts can trigger a slab avalanche in very steep terrain in NE/E/S/W aspects. The impulse of one single person is sufficient. Slab avalanches can grow to medium-to-large size. Naturally triggered avalanches will be rare on Sunday. Isolated loose-snow avalanches are possible in steep rocky terrain or isolated glide-snow avalanches.

The abundant snowfall in some places was heavily windblown above the treeline and distributed quite irregularly. Wind-exposed terrain is blown bare, most of the new snow is found at forest rims on south-facing and east-facing slopes. Due to the warmth impulse on Saturday, the likelihood of avalanches triggering at lower altitudes diminished (due to settling). At high altitudes, however, this is not the case. Below the last snowdrifts and the entire mass of new snow of the last three days (40-60 cm) there are still weak layers which can be triggered (blanketed powder and faceted weak layers beneath the latest melt-freeze crusts) in north-facing aspects and at high altitudes.

On Sunday it will be sunny, not as stormy (northerly winds reaching 30-40 km/hr). Temperature at 2000 m: -7 degrees. On Monday, sunshine. Mostly light winds. Temperature at 2000 m: -4 degrees; at 3000 m. -8 degrees.

Danger zones will decrease.