In western and northern regions there is still little snow on the ground. In the Jura and Prealps, fresh snow is falling mostly
on bare ground. Most of the snow on the ground (30 to 50 cm) lies in the Upper Valais sector of the Main Alpine Ridge, in
northern Ticino and in the central and southern parts of Grisons.
On shady slopes the snowpack is expansively metamorphosed (faceted) for the most part, thus, it is generating an unfavourable
snow base. On sunny slopes there are are variety of crusts inside the snowpack. The surface is hardened in some places. Steep
south-facing slopes up to approximately 2200 m, in the northern and western regions up to 2600 m in some places, have been
free of snow to a great extent.