Xmas pow in Kaunertal

The Alps had heavy snowfall on Christmas eve of 2018. On Christmas eve I was pondering where to for a long time. wepowder maps showed that Vorarlberg and Ischgl would be good, but I was afraid of the fully wet snow pack from the rain few days back and higher up the winds had been stormy. That's a bad combination for avalanche risk. Higher up on glaciers there had been less snow but Kaunertal was still closed after the snow storm. The decision came easy after a warning from Tirol avalanche service reminding that first sunny day after storms is a dangerous one.

So I decided to wait. I'm not sure I could have resisted some nice sunny but dangerous areas. Sure enough, there was some bad news that day.

But the wait for second Christmas day was worth it when we drove up to Kaunertal where the glacier road had finally been cleared up. There was a slightly wind packed 40 cm of new snow everywhere, no tracks, and not that many people. Also the Kaunertal terrain has lots of not-so-steep routes to ski on.

Not first on the lift but untracked snow everywhere on the shady side.

Avalanche control had been exploding things higher up the glacier.

Group with a guide is making first tracks on the same area as I was aiming at.

But there was space for our tracks too.

The snow was wind affected and a bit tricky to ski on but still mostly soft new snow.

There was lots of space on the mellow glacier to draw tracks on.

Lonely tracks between the prepared pistes.

My tracks!

And a video to show how much good skiing there was. GoPro battery died early so I wasn't just selfie stick skiing for the likes.

That was a nice late Christmas present and worth the wait!

-Mikko