Rätikon West

Fresh snow and drifts prone to triggering

Fresh snow and drifts prone to triggering

Fresh fallen snow and snowdrift accumulations are easily triggered. Slab avalanchess can be triggered by minimum additional loading and grow to medium-sized releases. Settling noises when treading the snowpack and fractures on the surface can indicate imminent danger. Danger zones occur in wind-loaded steep terrain, behind sharp drops in the landscape, in gullies and bowls. Particularly in high-altitude west, north and east-facing slopes, avalanches can fracture down to ground-level layers of the snowpack and grow to large size. In very steep terrain, also loose-snow avalanches are possible.

Widespread up to 30cm of fresh snow is anticipated, up to 40cm in the Rätikon. Amid intermittently strong winds it will be transported and will generated new snowdrift masses. They are prone to triggering. Fresh snow and drifts often lie deposited atop soft layers of fresh fallen snow from precious days and blanket older drifts. The mid-part of the snowpack consists of well-consolidated, compact layers which in shady slopes blanket a poorly-structured snowpack fundament.

Wintery conditions with snowfall and wind. During daytime hours, some interims without snowfall in sunny windows. The northerly winds will intensify the cold. Temperature at 2000m: from -8 degrees; at 3000m: -16 degrees. Moderately strong northerly winds at high altitude, very gusty.

To start with, no significant change