Snow conditions in Austria are generally good with plenty of fresh snow in the past week building bases still further after a snowy autumn 2017 and Christmas/New Year.
In fact there was too much snow in places – along with periods of gales force wind and torrential rain which forced lots of the leading ski areas in Austria and indeed the Western Alps to close for safety reasons on 3-5 January. The aftermath is considerable to high avalanche danger off piste.
Heute am Hochjoch ?
Posted by Silvretta Montafon on Saturday, 6 January 2018
But for most Austrian areas the sun was back out over the weekend and all or most of the terrain was open.
Base depths have reached 4.3m on the Dachstein glacier, with Obergurgl now just past the 3m (10 foot) snow depth mark on its upper slopes and 1.2m (4 feet) in resort. St Anton is at 80-315cm. Some lower resorts have more marginal cover at resort level after the warm temperatures
More snow is forecast for the week ahead but, as yet, nothing like the past few weeks.
