With the south wind on shady slopes fresh, poorly bonded snowdrift on top of surface hoar!
The avalanche danger above the treeline is moderate. In shady areas slab avalanches can be triggered by small additional loads. These avalanches are usually small but can reach medium size in some places. Danger spots are usually located in shady northwestern to eastern expositions especially in transitions from little to much snow, in entries to steep gullies and bowls and behind ridgelines. The danger areas start in lightly forested areas and increase with height. Spontaneous loose-snow avalanches on sunny extremely steep rock areas are possible.
Snowpack
Due to mild sunny weather the snow cover has settled in sunny high-altitude slopes. On shady slopes driftsnow-which formed during precipitation Wednesday-is prone to triggering in some places. Also du to south winds there can driftsnow can form again which will be poorly bonded to the predominantly existing surface hoar. In addition persistent weak layers are there for a longer period due to low amounts of snow and faceted snow layers and crusts which are weakening the snow base.
Tendency
Due to cooling tension within the snowdrift are persistent.
Danger level
treeline
Avalanche Problem
Wind slab
Treeline
Only isolated danger spots due to snowdrift in shady areas.
The avalanche danger is low. In some danger spots slab avalanches can be triggered by small additional loads. These are in general small. Danger spots are located in in shady slopes and steep areas adjacent to ridgelines, in high-altitude entries into gullies and bowls and behind terrain edges. In case of triggered avalanches risk of injuries is more likely than risk of being buried.
Snowpack
The winter so far-which was cold and without lots of snow- reflects the composition of the snowcover. The snow base is formed by a succession of crusts in which weak layers and faceted snow is found. In shady slopes small amounts of older snowdrift and now with the south wind blown-in snow. On sunny slopes the snow cover has settled.
