Západné Tatry

Watch out for wind-blown pillows of new snow and wet avalanches on sunlit slopes.

Watch out for wind-blown pillows of new snow and wet avalanches on sunlit slopes.

There is a moderate avalanche danger in the High and Western Tatras above 1200 m above sea level. The main avalanche problem is wet snow. Dangerous are especially sunny unlit S, SW and W orientations. Avalanche release is possible on steep slopes with little additional load. Small and medium avalanches are a threat, especially in conjunction with terrain traps. The second avalanche problem is wind-blown snow. At altitudes above 1800 m above sea level, there is very locally a large amount of new snow that is deposited on the critical crustal layer. Especially dangerous are narrow couloirs and places under rock walls.

The snow cover is very varied. At the highest altitudes, a very hard to icy layer alternates with wind-blown snow. On average, up to 20 cm of new snow has fallen in the last snowfall period, but locally there may be much more. There is also a critical layer of crusts in the snow profile. At mid-altitudes, the water-soaked snow cover from the previous days is freezing due to the cooling and is stabilising significantly. On sunlit slopes, new snow in particular is very poorly bonded to the hard ground.

With warming rising.