Blog Posts in Category: Mountaineering

Brecherspitz

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

After missing a day of excellent weather due to needing to complete Brexit admin in Munich, we were disappointed to see the weather forecast on Friday was not very good. But wanting to make the most of Becky being here, we decided to head out anyway, and it was certainly a good decision as we had sunshine all day. We headed down to Neuhaus, where we did a circuit which went up the obvious ridge up to the Brecherspitz, before traversing across to the Brecherspitz Vorgipfel and then heading back down to Neuhaus. On the drive past Schliersee we could clearly see the Brecherspitz and our ascent ridge, which looked fantastic. The walk up through the woods was very pleasant as it was a good path and a nice gradient, we soon emerged at the Ankl-Alm and headed up to the ridge. The views over Schliersee were great, albeit very hazy. The walk up the ridge was very enjoyable with changing views, and a gentle breeze. As we approached the top the wind became stronger, but we were greeted by more excellent views at the summit. After getting to the. Read the full article…

Herzogstand and Heimgarten

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

After a few weeks of excellent skiing, the weather seemed to turn very abruptly to spring with warm weather and clear skies. After months of not being able to join me in Munich due to Covid travel restrictions, Becky was finally able to come out for a few weeks. Thankfully the weather once she had finished her quarantine was still beautiful, so we headed out to do the classic circuit of Herzogstand and Heimgarten. The weather was beautiful all day, and we certainly felt too warm in trousers and a t-shirt! The ascent up to the Herzogstand was fairly quick and we were greeted with exceptional views, the difference between the view to the north towards Starnbergersee and Munich and south towards the alps was amazing, and it was great to look down over Kochelsee and Walchensee. The ridge between the two looked brilliant with the last of the snow still covering the ridge, we had to put spikes on to get down to the start of the ridge as the descent was not in the sun, but otherwise the snow was all soft. The ridge was enjoyable, with some. Read the full article…

Riedberger Horn – Spring ski touring

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Ski Touring Short Link

After an excellent weekend ski touring in powder snow, I was keen to get out at least once more before the winter ends in Bavaria. With good weather forecast midweek and the weather rapidly warming up, we decide to take a day of annual leave and headed to the Allgäu where we could start relatively high and do some skiing which didn’t involve starting or finishing in a forrest. We elected to do the so called Riedberger Horn Dopplewopper, the route started up the Riederberger horn ski area for the first 300hm, and then we left the deserted ski area and headed up to the summit. The ascent was fairly uneventful, other than a few times where our skins suddenly lost grip causing us to fall over. It is safe to say that the conditions were now definitely spring, rather than the powder from the weekend before. The ascent in the sun was very warm, but with the views was pretty enjoyable. As we approached the summit, the view were getting better and better, and from the top it was just outstanding. We then headed down a ridge, winded through. Read the full article…

Another powder day on Schildenstein

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Ski Touring Short Link

After how busy it was yesterday, it was another early start for me. Adam and I were at the car park at 7am again, to find it significantly quieter than the car park from the previous day, but at least the weather was better in the morning. After a straightforward skin up a track we were soon above the main forrest line where we were, and we were greeted with a spectacular descent, less than 30degrees, untracked and deep with powder. Something to look forward to on the descent. After a quick pause at the Königsalm for some water we continued heading up. This involved crossing a narrow bridge, which felt exposed with skins on, it seemed even narrower on the way back with some speed! The ascent then took us up a ridge line in the trees, this was fairly uneventful but there were a few tricky corners due to being fairly steep in places. We soon emerged at the plateau below the summit, but it was clear that without crampons it would not have been safe to go to the actual summit. So we made do with our. Read the full article…

Powder day on Schönberg

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Ski Touring Short Link

After multiple days of heavy snow combined with it being a weekend we knew that we were going to need to start early, after rejecting Rob’s idea of a 5am start, we agreed to meet at 7. It was lucky as 10mins after we arrived the car park was full! We skinned from the cars, and headed up into the woods. The conditions in the morning were better than I was anticipating, and the ascent was actually warm without any wind. The path we took basically went straight up, but despite this it was fairly pleasant and more interesting than skinning up the route we took back down. As we approached the col below Schönberg, the cloud came in and the snow started. We assumed that it was set in for the day, however as we approached the summit we could see the sun through the clouds, and just before we set off on the descent the cloud cleared. The descent started down a steep break between the trees, which gave no time for a warm up. But thankfully due to the excellent powder this was no trouble, and was. Read the full article…

Hinteres Hörnle Ski Tour

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Ski Touring Short Link

After multiple days of snow in the mountains I was very keen to get out, and am lucky enough to be able to work flexibly. So after a “half day” of working from home I drove down to Bad Kohlgrub to meet Helen for a lunchtime ski tour. There was snow down to the car park, and the weather was much better than I had anticipated so it was great to be out. We made good time up to the top of the ski resort, and were enjoying that it was a lot quieter than we were expecting, and as we left the ski resort it got even quieter! Helen had been commenting that the summit of Hinteres Hörnle was often in the cloud when she was there, and today was no exception as we chose the only time there was cloud on the summit to reach the top. As it wasn’t very warm we did not hang about and set off on the descent. The lack of photos from the descent is a good indication of it being good! The snow was fantastic, although I did find a rock. Read the full article…

Brünstelskopf to Vorderer Felderkopf Ridge

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

The weather forecast for Saturday had been fairly mixed all week, but it had remained sure that there would be very strong winds. With this in mind we had elected to do an alternative variant of this route to minimise the time we spent on the ridge. However, due to me following the wrong route we ended up doing the entire ridge, which as it turned out was a fortunate mistake as there was no wind, clear air and wall to wall sunshine. The ascent to the start of the ridge was fairly painless, and we gained a surprising amount of height fairly quickly. As we emerged from the forrest onto the ridge just below Brünstelskopf it became clear there was plenty of snow along the entire ridge and that we would need to put our crampons on. The ridge was just spectacular, with inspiring views in every direction, clear air, lots of sun, and more importantly no wind. We must have been on the ridge for quite some time as it is a reasonable distance, but it really didn’t feel like it took very long as it was so. Read the full article…

Dürrnbergjoch

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

Today was a day where the weather forecast couldn’t decide between not great and brilliant, and it seemed the actual weather was a bit indesisive as well, but it certainly wasn’t the day which the forecast predicted at 6:30 am that morning. We had decided to head up to the Sylvensteinspeicher and walk up the ride towards the Demeljoch, with no particular objective in mind, just seeing how far we could get with the snowy conditions. We were expecting a clear day, the but actual weather had other ideas in mind as it was snowing as we left the car park. As we drove across the dam I was very surprised to find the dam frozen, a bit of a different scene to when I was last here in the Autumn! After a typically Bavarian ascent in the forrest, with a few fleeting views out over the frozen reservoir, we soon arrived at the start of the ridge, which meant we had wonderful views to one side. We could see plenty of bad weather, but didn’t appear to be catching much ourselves which was great. We made good time up. Read the full article…