Langtauferer Spitze

Alastair BegleyAustria, Ski Touring Short Link

I planned a weekend tour from Vent last year with the plan to ski from Vent to the Martin Busch Hütte, then over the Fineilspitze to the Schöne Aussicht and then over to the Hintereisferner and back down to Vent. The tour was initially supposed to have five people, but due to major trips being re-arranged due to being postponed, injuries and covid, it ended up just being me and Yasmin on the trip. It felt very strange getting up for breakfast at 7:30 with a plan of doing a 3500m peak, however our start time was dictated by the late breakfast and the hut, combined with the plan to ski down from the hut and catch the ski lift up to just below Teufelsjoch. The ski down to the lift in the morning was wonderful as it was down a freshly groomed piste, however touring skis are not ideal for a carving descent! Unfortunately the lift opened 30mins later than we thought it would, which led to a very cold 30mins watching the chairs being slowly put on the lift and the count down to the final chair. Thankfully. Read the full article…

Fineilspitze

Alastair BegleyAustria, Ski Touring Short Link

I planned a weekend tour from Vent last year with the plan to ski from Vent to the Martin Busch Hütte, then over the Fineilspitze to the Schöne Aussicht and then over to the Hintereisferner and back down to Vent. The tour was initially supposed to have five people, but due to major trips being re-arranged due to being postponed, injuries and covid, it ended up just being me and Yasmin on the trip. The first day was a simple ski up the valley from Vent into the hut, we left Munich in plenty of time so we were in no great rush on the ski in, as we had plenty of time and our only plan for the afternoon was Apfelstrudel at the hut, and then crevasse rescue practice. The ski in was very straightforward and we only had to briefly take our skis off a few times. I have stayed at the Martin Busch Hütte a few times before, once as a child and once last year with Becky, and I remember the walk in going on with many “last corners”, and it certainly wasn’t different in Winter.. Read the full article…

Sellaronda Ski Circuit

Alastair BegleyDolomites, Skiing Short Link

Since doing the Sellaronda in the summer a few years ago on my bike I had been very keen to return in Winter to do the ski circuit. After Becky had made huge progress with her skiing this year we decided to do the anti-clockwise version on her birthday weekend in Italy. Due to the cold temperatures and lack of precipitation, combined with the snow making on the route the conditions were just about perfect with excellent piste conditions, wall to wall sunshine and not too many people. The morning started off pretty chilly, but with plenty of sunshine and empty pistes. We started from Corvara so it was a bit of a slow start with lots of fairly short lifts, but this gave us plenty of time to admire the wonderful scenery. Once we were at the top of the first pass the skiing to lift ratio improved dramatically and we started to make good progress around the route. The scenery remained fantastic and was always changing due to the circular route. Mid morning we stopped off for a coffee and some brunch to keep the energy levels high,. Read the full article…

Ice Climbing & Langlauf in the Reintal

Alastair BegleyItaly, Winter Climbing Short Link

For Becky’s birthday weekend we had optimistically booked a weekend in the Reintal in Südtirol, Italy. We were staying at the lovely Jausenstation Angerer gasthaus, which was situated just below the main ice fall. In the week running up to the trip the temperatures were really low, so despite being late in the season it was still possible to ice climb, however the days were fairly short due to the impact of the sun on the ice. We had hoped to do a multi pitch on the other side of the valley later on in the weekend, but we didn’t manage to do enough climbing to be confident to head out on a multi pitch route after a few years without doing any ice climbing. The routes we managed to do before the sun made the ice too soft to climb were really fun, and it was great to be back on the ice! Thankfully it wasn’t an issue having to finish the ice climbing early, as the Reintal is also brilliant for Langlauf (or XC skiing). We had never done it before so decided to give it a go,. Read the full article…