Werdenfels Alps

Avoid snowdrift accumulations.

Avoid snowdrift accumulations.

The avalanche risk is moderate above 1800 metres and low below. Wind slabs are the main problem. This can be triggered as a small, and at higher altitudes also medium slab avalanche with low additional load. The avalanche prone locations are mainly in the steep terrain adjacent to ridgelines with aspects from west to north to east as well as in gullies and bowls.

On a few shaded steep slopes at high altitudes, medium slab avalanches can also be triggered in persistent weak layers with a high additional load, for example when surface avalanches penetrate to deep layers.

When exposed to sunlight, small loose snow avalanches release themselves from the rocky steep terrain.

Fresh and older wind slab lies partly prone to triggering on soft snow layers or a thin crust. In some cases, however, it also lies directly on a load-bearing, crusted can form surface of old snow with which it has bonded well. On shady slopes at higher altitudes, weak layers of faceted crystals can be found deep in the otherwise compact old snowpack. A thin melt-freeze crust forms overnight in the middle and southern slopes of the high altitudes, which quickly softens again during the day with the sun. The southern sides of the mid-altitudes quickly dry out again.

The avalanche danger is slowly decreasing.