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 up by sunrise, which was really beautiful, even if it hasn’t come out that well in my photographs. We kept plodding our way along the route with minimal faffs stops, no layer changes, just one brief water stop, a few photo stops and one stop to put thicker gloves on as we climbed higher. Given the weather and our efficiency, we perhaps started too early, but it was great to see the sunrise, however this meant that we were in the shade for the majority of the ascent which was very cold!

We eventually emerged into the sunshine and were greeted by a fantastic view, however as we climbed further into the sunshine it was clear that the mountain had had all of its fresh snow blown off by the winds on the preceding days (and today), which left a scoured, crusty and icy face up to the very scoured summit.

When we arrived at the summit we quickly took some photos and enjoyed the views, while in a biting wind, a nearby wind station said that it was -10 at a similar altitude, which when combined with the wind was biting. After enjoying the views we dropped down slightly and converted into descending mode before making a hasty getaway.

The snow was certainly more challenging than the day before, and it is safe to say that Katherine found the going harder, and discovered the “joy” of crusty snow on the descent. Despite the few falls, we made good time back down to the forest and even found some enjoyable snow on the way down. The less that can be said about the descent through the forest the better, other than avoiding those who were ascending, it wasn’t the skiing that was the problem, but it was impossible to avoid the rocks which were visible on many of the turns, let alone the ones which were just below the top surface of snow. Somehow my skis seemed to survive relatively unscathed despite all of the bad noises on the way down.

Skinning up in beautiful early morning light
Looking up at our summit in the sun from the shady lower slopes
Cold going in the shady valley
Katherine having emerged into the sun as we approached the summit of the Wetterkreuzkogel
View over the Ötztal from the Wetterkreuzkogel
Wetterkreuzkogel summit cross
Me on the Wetterkreuzkogel
Katherine on the Wetterkreuzkogel
Scoured summit on the Wetterkreuzkogel
Katherine heading off on the descent from the Wetterkreuzkogel
Katherine heading off on the descent from the Wetterkreuzkogel
Katherine falling on the descent from the Wetterkreuzkogel
Katherine skiing into the shade on the descent from the Wetterkreuzkogel
Briefly back into the sunshine on the descent from the Wetterkreuzkogel

Due to the very early start, we had finished the ski tour by 11, so after we had dropped Katherine’s rental skis back in Kühtai and driven back down to Oetz, I still had time for a quick ski and fly before meeting Becky at the Ötztal Bahnhof.