During the course of this last week, the snowpack swiftly became thoroughly wet to an increasing degree as a consequence of
daytime warmth, overcast nocturnal skies and dust from the Sahara. The snowpack on south-facing slopes below 2500 to 2800
m, on east-facing and west-facing slopes below 2000 to 2300 m, is thoroughly wet. On north-facing slopes the process of becoming
thoroughly wet has begun below 1700 to 2000 m. In the northern regions where snowfall has been heaviest, more than anywhere
else, numerous glide cracks have opened in the snowpack surface. Gliding avalanches can become large-sized in some cases.
In more deeply embedded layers inside the snowpack, particularly in the southern Valais as well as in the inneralpine and
the southern regions, there are pronounced weak layers evident. Nevertheless, from the end of February until the middle of
March, no fractures of dry-snow avalanches were recorded as triggering from these layers. Currently, as the moistening of
the snowpack gets underway, fractures in these layers are again becoming possible, as first triggerings by persons have demonstrated.