Wetterkreuzkogel Ski Tour

Alastair BegleyAustria, Ski Touring Short Link

After not getting to an actual summit yesterday due to the quantity of fresh snow no the ridge, I wanted to ensure that Katherine actually ski toured to her first proper summit today. I decided that with the snow conditions at the moment our best bet was to head back to the Wetterkreuzkogel, which I first did with Adam on a week long ski touring trip in 2019. We decided to go for an early start as some of the forecasts suggested that bad weather would come in around lunchtime, and it meant that the route would be quieter. It was another very cold morning, my car said -15 degrees as we were driving to the car park, and I think it was about -13 degrees where we parked. We took the phrase “be bold, start cold” to heart and were absolutely frozen as we left the car, but soon our cores warmed up as we climbed abruptly from the car up the twisty track in the forest, and eventually my fingers even warmed up. We emerged from the woods as the high cloud in the sky was being lit. Read the full article…

Kreuzjoch Ski Touring

Alastair BegleySki Touring Short Link

With a forecast for overnight snow, followed by sunshine at some point in the day, I decided to take Katherine on her first ski tour. As we left Munch in the morning, I knew we were heading to Kühtai, but had a number of different options in my mind based on the updated weather and avalanche forecasts. As we were driving towards Kühtai, it is safe to say that it was not looking positive with extensive cloud above us, although that was not too much of a surprise as we knew it was improving throughout the day. What was surprising was at how quickly it improved as we drove up the valley through Kühtai and drove though a temperature inversion. As we arrived in Kühtai to hire skis for Katherine the mountains were basking in sunshine, although it was very cold, I think the car read -8 degrees. I elected to head to Mitterzeigerkogel, as I knew most of the route from my previous tour in Kühtai, and I knew it was an easy tour up to the Kreuzjoch. We made great time on the ascent, despite it being Katherine’s. Read the full article…

2024 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, Alpinism, Arco, Austria, Bavaria, France, India, Landscape, Mountain Biking, Paragliding, Rock Climbing, Scrambling, Ski Touring, Skiing, Via Ferrata, Walking, Wildlife Short Link

It seems hard to believe that another year has passed by, but having just had another overindulgent Christmas and new year it is somehow already time to summarise the year in another 100 photos. It was a very busy year with both free time activities and work with many more business trips for me than usual. Winter The year started off with the ski season, we did a lot of alpine skiing and certainly made the most of our Tirol cards, I think I did around 25 days overall! Becky’s skiing has continued to improve and this led us todo our first ski tour on the Kleiner Gamsstein. Unfortunately the snow over the winter was difficult for ski touring, especially for beginners so there was limited ski touring for both Becky and me. I managed one ski mountaineering weekend, but we suffered with terrible snow conditions as well as weather. It was nonetheless enjoyable to spend a weekend high in the mountains. Spring It soon turned to spring, which was unfortunately a bit of a washout along with the start of the summer. This resulted in us not spending that. Read the full article…