Stuiben Kopf ski tour with variations Dec 16

Yesterday Alex and I got out on a ski tour to the Stuiben Kopf, a ski tour that during the normal season is a short tour that I use as an excuse to go drink beer in a beautifull alpine setting but when no lifts are open turns into a longer tour with real route finding and an overall good time. This is the only time i have ever been on this tour and not seen more than 10 people skinning up at the same time. We broke the trail teh whole time which was an added bonus (I'm weird)

We met at the Kreuzeck bahn in a rainstorm before setting off up the Kreuzeck and on to the Langenfelder lift that we were pleasently suprised to find was above the snow line. From the top of this lift we skied some powder down to the Hochalm Bahn which is not yet. At that point I was going throw the skins on and start skinning up the run to the Y that you usually drop into the Bernidein but Alex  reminded me that there is a hiking path in summer that goes directly from the kreuzeck to the Bernedein so instead of putting on the skins we skied below the Hochalm bahn traversing right and eventually found the summer hiking path before putting the skins on. After skinning for 25 minutes we were skinning accross the Bernedein run and on to where the normal start of the tour when the lift is running.

After 30 minutes on the normal skin track we made our way right as if we were going to head to the Alpspitze but instead made our way to the edge of the cliff that the Stuiben hutte sits on went to a small klettersteig through a small gash in the cliff side that had been pointed out to me last winter but I had never tried. We put the skis on the pack and made our way up and over the rock band putting us 200 or 300 meters above the hut were the usual skin track is that goes from the hut. After making it up and over the ridge we kept on skinning up until we reached the top of the Stuiben kopf...or Stuiben Spitze, I get the two mixed up but they are 100 meters apart so it doesn't really matter!



After a quick meal and stripping the skins we made our way down the opposite side of the ridge to the valley skiing a small couloir with some bare spots at the top that ended up having much better snow the further we got down into the valley. Once in the bottom of the valley we straight pointed the skis and made our way back to the winding skin stack through the trees and out to the Bernedein run where we put the skins back on and climbed are way out of the unopened area and back to the Kreuzeck bahn for the long, wet ski back to the valley. Overall fun day and first day of ski touring this year that was not just straight up and straight down that that added some spice to the day as well as some fun route finding. Great day!

-Owen