Villach Alps

Too little snow on the ground for winter sports widespread. Danger zones in gullies and bowls.

Too little snow on the ground for winter sports widespread. Danger zones in gullies and bowls.

The snowdrift accumulations on steep shady slopes above 1800m can in isolated cases trigger an avalanche even by minimum additional loading. Particularly unfavorable are gullies and bowls where hardened layers blanket weakly consolidated old snow. These danger zones occur rather seldom, and are generally small-sized. Apart from the risk of being buried in snow masses, you also need to take the dangers of being swept along and forced to take a fall into consideration.

Snowdrift accumulations cover a weak old snowpack surface on shady slopes above 1800m. The old snowpack is weak, with faceted crystals. Solar radiation and higher temperatures led to a gradual softening of the snowpack during the course of the day, particularly on sunny slopes.

On New Year’s Day, again cloudless skies and mild temperatures in the mountains, sunshine all day long, outstanding visibility, winds intensifying slightly during the daytime, increasingly blowing from the southwest, gusts reaching 50 km/hr in exposed terrain during the afternoon. Temperatures nearly unchanged. At 2000m: +2 degrees; at 1000m: +9 degrees.

Avalanche danger levels are not expected to change significantly.