Blog Posts in Category: Ski Touring

Another powder day on Schildenstein

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

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

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…

Brauneck Ski Touring

With the temperatures having been really high since the day I drove over, I had mostly given up on the concept of using my new ski touring skis this year. Thankfully some of the Bavarian ski areas are still hanging onto their snow, even low down. To make the most the snow before it finishes melting, Rob, Helen and I headed to Brauneck for a day of ski touring on closed pistes. The skin up was tiring, especially for my unfit legs, but straightforward with no need for any kick turns, and surprisingly grippy snow. Once we got out of the initial woods the views were really spectacular. We headed straight up to Brauneck and were treated to a massive cloud inversion to the north west, and fantastic views of the mountains towards Austria with wonderfully clear air. We then headed over to the Stin-Alm where we had a quick drink before heading up the Idealhang lift track. The descent back down from where was lovely, OK snow, great views, what more could you want… We then made the hot return to Brauneck, before starting the frankly unpleasant descent back. Read the full article…

Ski Touring in Austria

After first ski touring four years ago in Scotland I decided that I wanted to go to the alps. This year it finally happened thanks to now having a friend who lives in Münich. The week could not really have been any better, as there was plenty of fresh snow in the weeks running up to my arrival and then an excellent stable, sunny and cold forecast for the week of my trip. Combined with this the air remained extremely clear so we had brilliant views into the distance in every direction. On the first day we headed to Hochfügen so that I could remind myself how to ski and it turned out to be a great day with quiet pistes, excellent snow and plenty of sun. We did get a bit carried away and managed to ski 37km downhill with 800m of descent. The next day we headed over to Küthai for two days of day touring as a more gentle introduction before we headed up into the mountains. Schafzöllen Monday was our only day of bad weather, but as the forecast improved we decided to head out for. Read the full article…

Cairngorm Ski Touring

Today was an introduction to ski touring for Becky, as it was her first day out touring we skinned up one of the closed pistes on the Cairngorm ski resort, before heading off into the backcountry and up to the summit. We had planned to traverse around the northern corries and then descent down Lurchers gully, however we were running a bit later than planned having had to hire kit in the morning and the weather was closing in. Due to this we decided just to head back to the ski centre and then head down the pistes back to the car.

An Attempt at Ski Touring the Cairngorm 4000ers

I had made plans with Nick to head up to Scotland for some climbing this weekend, however the never ending snowfall all week made that seem unlikely due to arduous and dangerous approaches to the climbs. We are both capable skiers and decided that this would be a good opportunity to learn to ski tour, especially as the forecast for Saturday spoke about Alpine conditions. Nick and I have a history of not doing things in half measures (two years ago we climbed Orion Face, Tower Ridge and Point Five in a brilliant weekend while camping at the base of the north face of Ben Nevis). This was no exception to that, as instead of doing an easy day tour to learn how to do it, we decided to do a two day tour and attempt to climb all five of the Cairngorm 4000ft peaks. After a slow drive up to Aviemore after work on Friday we hired kit early on Saturday morning and headed to cairngorm mountain where we avoided looking to stupid as we skinned up the side of the ski lifts. We were soon at the summit of. Read the full article…