Tennen Mountains, Gosaukamm

Freshly generated snowdrift accumulations prone to triggering

Freshly generated snowdrift accumulations prone to triggering

Avalanche danger above the timberline is moderate. Snowdrift accumulations above the treeline can often trigger a small-to-medium slab avalanche by one sole skier, increasing in size with ascending altitude. Danger zones occur particularly in ridgelines zones and behind protruberances in the landscape. Danger zones increase quickly with ascending altitude, occur on NW/N/SE facing slopes. Trigger-sensitive snowdrift accumulations occur also distant from ridgelines, in gullies and bowls and behind protruberances in the landscape. Superficially triggered releases above 2200m can fracture down to deeper layers of the snowpack. Danger zones occur in all aspects. Caution urged in transitions from shallow to deeper snow. Due to fresh snow, gliding snow activity will slightly increase. Caution of small-to-medium glide-snow avalanches urged below 2400m and below glide cracks.

Up to 10-20cm of fresh snow was registered, locally more. Weak layers for slab avalanches lie inside the fresh snow and fresh drifts. On shady slopes above 2000m the old snowpack can itself be a weak layer. Above 2200m there are several weak layers of faceted crystals inside the old snow, often prone to triggering. The entire snowpack can glide over steep rocky plates or grass-covered slopes.

Light snowfall during the nocturnal hours, with clouds then dispersing temporarily. Temperatures rising. At 2000m: from -5 to 0 degrees. On Wednesday, dense clouds in the Northern Alps, visibility often reduced. Southerly winds at high altitudes of the Tauern will be brisk, windspeeds reaching 60 km/hr, elsewhere winds will be noticeably lighter. During the daytime temperatures will rise. At 2000m from 0 to +5 degrees, at 3000m: from -7 to -2 degrees.

At lower altitudes, proneness of snowdrifts’ triggering to slowly diminish due to higher temperatures