Cold, loose powder generating highly trigger-sensitive weak layer for fresh snowdrifts.
As a supplement to our last blog, a short notice to all winter sports enthusiasts: the Christmas holidays were marked by high quality powder. That is now over. In the interim, winds have increased in general, including distant from high peaks and distant from typical foehn lanes. Avalanche prone locations in the form of freshly generated snowdrift accumulations are on the increase. This applies particularly to the southern regions where heavy snowfall is getting underway.
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| Wind distribution in Tirol, 28.12. at 7:00 am, stormy southerly winds |
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| Increasing cloud cover in southern regions; heavy wind impact in the mountains; Defereggental |
Avalanche situation becoming treacherous for winter sports enthusiasts
Winter sports enthusiasts need to adjust to a really delicate situation brought about by winds and heavy precipitation in some regions. Fresh snowdrifts are often very poorly bonded with the cold, loose powder (which often is especially loose ‘diamond snow’). Settling noises and fracture cracks, also reports of the first naturally triggered avalanches, currently medium-sized, are clear-cut signs of danger.
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| Easily visible: intense wind influence including with fracture cracks, Gartalm-Hochleger, Tux Alps (photo: 27.12.2020) |
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| Wind impact in the East Tirolean Tauern (photo: 27.12.2020) |
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| Avalanche that triggered on the way to Hochgasser-East Tirolean Tauern. This was freshly drifted snow. (photo: 27.12.2020) |
Our appeal to one and all: over the next few days, CIRCUMVENT all snowdrift accumulations in steep terrain.
