Hi All,

I was in Scuol (Engadine) for boarding on Wednesday and Thursday and thought I would give a little info for those wondering how the snow is now there has been a fall.

Piste conditions were very hard pack, with only very rare (and small) ice patches, so ideal carving conditions. Off piste was mostly non existant as it was very windy on wednesday and so the area is hard blown. In a few accumulation places there is powder, but shallow (<20cm) uneven (fast changes from hard pack to ~50cm deep in little gullies) and quite hard underneith, not icy though. An exception is one fantastic patch (traverse as far as possible from the top of the high T-bar to the right), includes 2+ walks over rubble, but then there is a full powder slope that pops back out onpiste without walking (or pushing if you ski!), its hard in places but mostly a nice 50cm gradient from the hardpack base to fairly good powder near the top. There was a thin crunchy cap on it in most places, but nothing serious...

The talabfahrt was closed as they are cosntantly making snow there (maybe open this weekend?), but we gave it a try and with the exception of one small area with lots of grass and rubble coming though it was a good run to town, but don't take your new skis!

so general - if you like good hard pack for carving on piste Graubunden looks good at the moment...

Andrew