Lechquellen Mountains

Snowdrifts prone to triggering

Snowdrifts prone to triggering

Fresh and older trigger-sensitive snowdrift accumulations are threatening. The accumulations can be easily triggered even by one sole skier. Danger zones occur in wind-loaded steep terrain, in gullies and bowls, and behind protruberances in the landscape. Size and frequency of danger zones tend to increase with ascending altitude. In addition, on steep shady slopes at high altitudes and in transitions from shallow to deep snow, isolated slab avalanches can be triggered by large additional loading. In zones where there has been rain impact, slides and small wet-snow avalanches are possible. Glide-snow avalanches, mostly small, continue to be possible. Caution urged below glide cracks.

The lastest round of fresh snowfall has been deposited as loose-snow following the lower temperatures atop a well consolidated, often encrusted old snowpack surface, but fresh drifts tend to be often poorly bonded with the old snowpack surface with ascending altitude, sometimes will buried layers of graupel. More deeply embedded layers in the old snowpack are hardly prone to triggering. At most, where the snow is shallow and on very steep shady slopes.

Fogbanks will move in to some regions during the nocturnal hours, but skies will generally be clear, and it will be cold. In northern regions on Sunday, somewhat limited visibility, elsewhere mostly sunny. At 2000m: -16 to -11 degrees. Brisk to strong NE winds at high altitudes.

No significant change expected, caution urged towards high altitude snowdrifts