As a consequence of predominantly clear and cold nights, the snowpack surface freezes over widespread areas and forms a crust
which is capable of bearing loads. During the daytime hours this crust softens and slushes up. Loosely packed snow is deposited
generally only in very few spots on steep north-facing slopes and in the high alpine regions.
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. Gliding avalanches have
been observed in the northern regions of Switzerland where snowfall has been heaviest more than anywhere else, and were seen
to grow to large size in some places.
In more deeply embedded layers inside the snowpack, particularly in the southern Valais as well as in the inneralpine and
the southern regions of Grisons, there are pronounced weak layers evident. Nevertheless, from the end of February until the
middle of March there have been no further fractures of dry-snow avalanches triggering in these layers which have been recorded.
Currently, as the snowpack begins to moisten to a further extent, fractures inside these weak layers are once again becoming
possible, as avalanche triggerings by persons have recently demonstrated.