Alpen mountain

AlpineLifeSnowpackReport , Monday 6th January, 2025 11:15AM

Went for an attempt at alpen summit but decided not to complete due combination of rapid warming, wind effect and timing. The biggest danger of the day as things heated up were the tree bombs. There were some instances where some trees dumped all the snow on them all at once. You could hear the thuds of massive blocks of snow hit the snowpack and they would dump so fast that there would be huge clouds of snow shooting out in all directions, similar in energy to a small avalanche. Something to consider when travelling under steeper treed terrain. The ridge featured actual 'crevasses'. The one we observed was probably a 10ft deep open hole. (Might be good for a snow cave bivvy though 🤔) The snow quality was very good and there were 0 signs of instability in the snowpack itself. There was natural sluffing off alpen summit and the summit area looked decently wind affected. We mostly stayed off steep slopes as the temperatures rose quite quickly. Low angle terrain rode like a dream though. And even the cut blocks had the coverage to ski well.