After seeing the promising weather forecast and hearing Mitja Šorn’s positive feedback about the snow conditions in the Krnica valley, I decided to go ski touring beneath the massive rock face of Kriška stena. I was quite worried, though, about the moderate (level 2) avalanche danger listed on the ARSO website. Because of the warmer temperatures, I expected to encounter smaller avalanches from the high faces around our chosen route. That’s why Gorazd and I wasted no time after arriving at our starting point and hurried past the Krnica hut towards the slopes we intended to ski.
As expected, we saw several small avalanches sliding from the faces of Prisank and Razor. On the other side of the valley, snow was coming down from Špik’s slopes and couloirs. Since all these avalanches were very small, we continued with our skin to the base of Kriška stena, which appeared to have a layer of ice beneath the fresh snow. Of course this fresh snow was poorly bonded with the layer beneath it and was quite unstable due to the warm and sunny weather.
We had to deal with some crust at the start of the skiing, but the quality of the snow improved considerably further down. We found the best conditions among the small trees, which were barely sticking out of the snow. The skiing was incredible, and we were back at the hut in no time. We had a really great time!
Mountain guide IFMGA Danilo Tič
