Fresh fallen snow and newly generated snowdrifts from the last few days have been deposited to some extent on an unfavourable
old snowpack surface and are prone to triggering. Beneath the fresh snow and fresh snowdrifts the snowpack layering in the
Jura region, on the northern flank of the Alps and in the western part of the Lower Valais is predominantly favourable, except
in the vicinity of rain crusts which formed at the end of December. In those zones there are weak layers evident which are
prone to triggering from place to place.
From the central part of the Valais over the northern part of Ticino as far as Grisons, the snowpack is frequently expansively
metamorphosed (faceted) and riddled with thin melt-freeze crusts. In places where snow is shallow, you can break through down
to the ground. As as result of the expansive metamorphosis, the tendency towards fracture propagation has receded and in the
last few weeks there have hardly been any avalanche triggerings registered in the old snow. In the furthermost southern regions
there is very little snow on the ground.