Border Graie Alps

Wind slabs and wet snow represent the main danger. Natural moist avalanches are still possible.

Wind slabs and wet snow represent the main danger. Natural moist avalanches are still possible.

A mostly overcast night: The surface of the snowpack will freeze to form a strong crust only at high altitudes and will already be soft in the early morning. As a consequence of solar radiation there will be a gradual increase in the danger of moist and wet avalanches. Mostly small natural avalanches are possible, caution is to be exercised in particular at the base of rock walls, as well as on extremely steep sunny slopes. The current avalanche situation calls for careful route selection. Backcountry tours and off-piste skiing should be started and concluded early. Wind slabs can still in isolated cases be released, even by a single winter sport participant. These avalanche prone locations are to be found in particular on very steep slopes and in gullies and bowls, and behind abrupt changes in the terrain above approximately 2500 m.

The high temperatures in the late morning will give rise to rapid moistening of the snowpack in particular at low and intermediate altitudes. The snowpack is largely stable and its surface has a melt-freeze crust that is strong in many cases, especially on very steep shady slopes at elevated altitudes. The upper section of the snowpack is dry; its surface consists of loosely bonded snow.