Seetaler Alps

Trigger-sensitive snowdrifts even below the treeline

In the Niedere Tauern, heavy clouds will accumulate, but the greater part of the snowfall is over. In isolated cases on Saturday, snowfall is possible down to low lying areas but due to gale-strength winds only a small amount will be deposited and this will be intensively transported. Further south, dispersed clouds, hardly any precipitation. The NW winds will intensify, reach gale-strength even in low lying areas. Temperatures will drop. At 2000 m, from -6 to -13 degrees; at 1500 m from -3 to -8 degrees.

On Sunday, still stormy winds, but no precipitation. Snowdrifts remain prone to triggering.

Trigger-sensitive snowdrifts even below the treeline

Avalanche danger above the timberline is CONSIDERABLE, below that altitude danger is MODERATE. Fresh snow and stormy NW winds have generated wide-ranging snowdrift accumulations in all aspects during the last few days. With additional snowfall they will increase in size and spread. The drifted masses lie near to and distant from ridgelines, in steep gullies and bowls, near the edge of the treeline and in sparsely wooded zones. Weak layers in the fresh snow and drifts can be triggered by one person and grow to dangerously large size. Poor visibility makes assessment on-site very difficult. Also, there are isolated weak layers inside the snowpack which can be triggered due to the weight of the fresh snow and drifts - large sized avalanches can be the result. In steep zones where snowfall has been heaviest, naturally triggered avalanches are still possible.

In the last 24 hours there has been an additional 40 cm of fresh snow registered widespread, areas below 1400m have been moistened and destabilized by intermittent rainfall. Only when temperatures drop during the day today will the wet-snow problem recede below 1400 m. Due to temporary rise in temperatures on Friday the snowpack was able to settle down to 1600 m. On Saturday, not much fresh snow is anticipated but the snow from the last few days will be transported by gale-strength winds and far-reaching snowdrifts genearted. Weak layers occur inside the fresh snow and at the borders to the snowpack which are highly prone to triggering. Deeply embedded inside the snow cover are layers of faceted crystals bordering against melt-freeze crusts which weaken the entire snowpack.