The strong-to-storm velocity northerly to northwesterly winds are transporting the fresh snow from Friday in eastern regions,
and in all the other regions the loosely-packed old snow. Predominantly loose, expansively metamorphosed (faceted) old snow
is still evident on the wind-protected north-facing slopes. Fresh, generally small-sized snowdrift accumulations are prone
to triggering on shady slopes more than anywhere else. Steep south-facing slopes are encrusted on the surface. At high altitudes,
as well as in general in ridgeline and pass areas, the snowpack surface frequently shows striking effects from the northerly
winds.
More deeply embedded inside the snowpack in the Jura region, on the northern flank of the Alps and in the western part of
the Lower Valais, there are soft, expansively metamorphosed (faceted) layers evident inside the snowpack particularly in the
regions of the rain crusts which formed at the end of December. However, these layers are currently not very prone to triggering.
From the central part of the Valais over the northern Ticino as far as Grisons, the entire snowpack is often expansively metamorphosed
(faceted) and riddled with thin melt-freeze crusts. Increasingly, you sink on your skis down to the ground. In isolated cases,
particularly on very steep shady slopes in these regions, avalanches can be triggered in the ground-level layers of the old
snowpack.