Pongau Grass Mountains

Weak old snowpack with low snow cover

The night will start out clear, but in the second half of the night denser cloud fields will move in from the south. On Saturday, extensive fields of high cloud will move across the sky, with only the northern Alps and Oberpinzgau seeing longer gaps in the clouds. The wind will be mostly weak. At 2000 metres the temperature will be -5 to -2 degrees, at 3000 metres around -8 degrees.

No significant change in avalanche danger.

Weak old snowpack with low snow cover

The avalanche risk is moderate in the northern sector above 2000 metres and low below that. In skiable terrain next to blown-off areas, small to medium slab avalanches can be triggered in some places by low additional loads. In the higher elevations, wind slabs are still prone to triggering and avalanches triggered on the surface can tear through the persistent weak layer. Whumpfing collapsing sounds when stepping on the snowpack can indicate danger. Terrain traps are less full due to a lack of snow and are therefore more effective.

The snow surface is very different locally. There are areas with little snow next to snowdrift accumulations. In places, these are built up and soft, in places hard as a board. A thin melt-freeze crust usually forms overnight, but outgoing longwave radiation is reduced. Where an old snowpack is present, there are faceted crystals on and under the crust at the transition to it, which can serve as a weak layer. Fractures in the persistent weak layer usually occur here. Deeper in the old snowpack there is a sequence of faceted crystals, crusts and a lot of deep rime. The total snow depth is well below average.