The fresh fallen snow was deposited on top of a generally moist snowpack surface. Only on steep north-facing slopes above
approximately 2600 m was the snowpack surface dry and still loosely-packed in some places. There, more than anywhere else,
weak bonding of the fresh fallen snow to the old snowpack can be expected.
In the three days prior to this period of precipitation, slab avalanches were triggered by persons above 3000 m in the near-surface
dry-snow layers of the snowpack predominantly on north-facing slopes. Triggerings in these somewhat more deeply embedded layers
of the snowpack are presumably only possible in isolated cases.
The old snowpack is thoroughly wet on south-facing slopes far up into high alpine regions, on west-facing and east-facing
slopes it is wet below approximately 3000 m, and on north-facing slopes below approximately 2600 m.