Blog Posts in Category: Winter

2023 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, Austria, Bavaria, Dolomites, General, Germany, Italy, Landscape, Mountaineering, Paragliding, Rock Climbing, Scrambling, Ski Touring, Skiing, Slovenia, Via Ferrata, Walking, Winter Walking Short Link

All to quickly it was once again the end of another year and time to reflect on the year. This year we really started to settle into our routine of living an hour from the Alps, with travel being much easier and having settled into Munich life, both professionally and socially. Unfortunately at the start of the year Becky had an accident and badly broke her wrist which was also misdiagnosed which delayed her recovery. This significantly impacted our year as we were unable to climb, klettersteig or ride our bikes for most of the year. The highlights of the year for me have to be Becky’s continued progression at skiing with her initial foray into ski touring, my ski mountaineering adventure on the Ruderhofspitze, my continued paragliding progression with my first flight over 100km, our wonderful holiday together to Slovenia and a beautiful walk near munich with a combination of snow&autumn colours. Winter Winter continued with lots of weekends away skiing with family, friends from the UK and friends from Munich, it seemed like we had a constant stream of visitors which as wonderful. Becky’s progression continued and she. Read the full article…

Veitsberg

Alastair BegleyAustria, Winter Walking Short Link

A lot had changed in the mountains since the previous weekend on Schellschlicht, as a significant amount of snow had fallen during the week. The weather forecast in the morning looked stunning, with high cloud forecast for the afternoon before more precipitation in the evening. We also needed a short day as Becky had to drive the van back to the UK the next day, so we settled on an early ascent of the Veitsberg, which had a book time of 4h15mins if the ridge on from the Veitsberg was excluded. The walk was really enjoyable from the get-go, as the autumnal colours were just stunning, and with a snow line down to only just above the car park gave us some really beautiful scenes with autumnal trees covered in plenty of snow. A rare combination thanks to a late autumn and a reasonable amount of early snowfall. Despite the snowfall we made good time, and were soon at the start of the ridge up to the summit. Here was where the day progressed from great to outstanding, as the views were just spectacular due to the clear air, green. Read the full article…

2022 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, Alpinism, Arco, Austria, Bavaria, Dolomites, General, Landscape, Paragliding, Road Cycling, Rock Climbing, Scrambling, Ski Touring, Skiing, Via Ferrata, Walking, Winter Climbing, Winter Walking Short Link

Thankfully 2022 was a more normal year than the previous two years, and our first full year with our new lifestyle living an hour from the Alps. A high point of the year was the number of visitors we were able to host, for skiing, walking, paragliding and climbing. We certainly made the most of living near the alps, with most weekends spend in the mountains one way or another. Winter Our winter was fairly dominated with piste skiing, where Becky progressed from tentatively skiing easy blue runs to confidently skiing red runs with the odd short black run as well! This was great to see and I am looking forward to her continued progression this year. Despite the focus on piste skiing we also squeezed some paragliding in and I managed to get 4 days of ski touring as well. General Through the winter we managed to squeeze in some paragliding, and on one of our final days of skiing of the year, I am managed to combine a morning skiing with my first proper cross country flight on my paraglider which was a very memorable experience, as I. 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…

Wallberg

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

As we only had a half day spare, generally poor weather and plenty of snow which made walking hard work, we decided to head to the Wallberg as we could take the lazy option to the top, have some lunch in a restaurant with a view and then make the short walk to the summit. The weather was better than expected when we got to the top, and there was even a brief glimpse of the sun. Due to this we decided to head to the chapel and admire the view before retreating into the very quiet restaurant for lunch. Feeling lazy and full we then headed off to the summit, which wasn’t difficult due to the excellent trail in the snow. I was last on the Wallberg after a much longer day with James last year. After a quick descent we were back at the lift for the easy descent back down to the car.

Bärenkopf

Alastair BegleyAustria, Winter Walking Short Link

James and I decided to head to the Bärenkopf above Achensee after the first substantial snowfall in the mountains. This seemed like a good balance of a decent day out with some good views, but something that wouldn’t be too much work with the new snow. Little did we know just how good the views would be. An easy drive after a leisurely start took us to a surprisingly empty car park, with snow down to the car as we were on the north side of the mountain. The start of the walk was up a track to the Bärenbadalm, there was a more direct walking path which we elected to avoid given the snow. The initial track felt fairly tiring after my lack of recent hill walking, but the fleeting views of Achensee certainly kept us going. It was a nice surprise that the trees were still pretty autumnal, and the contrast between the evergreens and deciduous was pleasing. We soon emerged out from the shade and into the sun next to the Bärenbadalm, where we had a snack and delayered before the steeper ascent up to the peak.. Read the full article…

Hirschberg

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

With winter stubbornly refusing to depart from Bavaria, Louise and I decided to head to the Hirschberg as it looked a great circuit, and not to long of a day. The initial ascent was pretty brutal, straight up the ski piste, which certainly got the blood flowing. Thankfully we were soon above the ski area and ascended up in the woods. Despite there being plenty of snow, it was all well trampled which made progress easy. When we emerged from the woods at the Rauheck Alm, it became clear that despite the weather being good we were not going to get outstanding views as the air was so hazy. We took the direct winter ascent up to the Hirschberg Vorgipfel, and then made the short detour out to the main summit of Hirschberg. Despite the haze the view from the top was great, I could see a number of recent walks and a number of walks which I am really keen to do. After enjoying some lunch we started the descent which was pretty straightforward thanks to the snow being the prefect consistency for descending. From the summit of Kratzer. Read the full article…

Roßstein and Hochplatte

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

Due to the fresh snow we knew that route choice was key for the last day while Becky was here, however we also wanted to do a route with some interest and a reasonable amount of time above the tree line. We decided to head up Roßstein, descend to the Tegernseer Hütte, drop down to the north, climb back up to Hochplatte and then take the easy descent back down to the car. We set off on a sunny and relatively warm morning and made good progress on the relatively snow free ascent up to the Sonneberg Alm. The sun was really warm despite it being early, but the views were wonderful. From the alm the route up the Roßstein looked improbable, but unsurprisingly it was fine as it snaked its way up a hidden line of weakness. We made it to the summit without putting our spikes on, however after enjoying some lunch and the view we put our spikes on for the descent to the Tegernseer Hütte and down to the north, as the start of the descent was more exposed and the descent from the Hütte was. Read the full article…