Lauterbrunnen ski trip

With no snow in the mountains around Garmisch we were getting a little desperate for a change of scenery. With that in mind we headed to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland with the forecast showing no new snow in the future but at least we will get a change of scenery and be skiing under one of the most famous mountains in the world, the Eiger.
Rolling into the guest house parking lot felt excellent after about 6 hours on the road with less than ideal traffic situations and few wrong turns. As soon as we walked through the door dad got started on some pasta as the rest of us shuttled our stuff into our rooms. Soon after eating all of us were tucked away in our beds and ready for two days of skiing in one of the best locations on earth. This is about the time I found out that the walls in the guest house were paper thin...my dad snores loud enough to shake the house off of its foundation but somehow we still got some sleep in.
We woke up at 5:30 the next morning to beat the crowds and quickly eat breakfast before heading down the road to the train that goes up to just below the Eiger in Kleine Scheidegg. After getting on the train we were overly happy to see that the train sitting next to us that was reserved had taken a bulk of the Japanese tourists firing off so many cameras at the same time it looked like there was a disco ball rotating inside the train.

Some heap of a mountain

After an hour or so we had arrived in Kleine Scheidegg, located right at the base of the most famous north face in the world, the North Face of the Eiger.
As we stepped off the train the vastness of the face was almost too much to handle. It's one thing to see Ueli Steck hauling ass up this thing on the TV but to see just how large this face is in person makes it seem almost impossible to climb it in 2 hours 47 minutes! We arrived 20 minutes before the lifts started running giving us a few minutes to just gaze up at the Junfrau, the Monch and the Eiger in silence. Once the lifts started turning we started making nice turns on piste because off piste was bullet proof hard snow.

Yes, thats a wood stopper

After skiing around for a while Hans and I found a rock mid run that had examples of current climbing gear like cams and nuts but also had examples of old gear from the first ascent of the Eiger. After taking WAY too many pictures of this rock we continued to do laps on chairs until soon it was time to eat.
Finding the perfect place to sit down and eat sandwiches was easy due to the warm weather and almost too many small farm huts dotting the country side to choose from.  After a nice lunch we continued skiing around enjoying the sun but wishing we had been at this area when it got hit with a lot of snow a week or two ago. The tracks we saw all around us gave us an idea of just how good it can get here! Perfect rolling terrain with cool little gully features that you have to ski under a cog wheel train bridge to get out of and the whole time you can look up and see the Eiger Nord Wand. Amazing! A few more laps on the runs and a little bit of off piste just to make sure it was as bad as it looked (it was) and we made our way back down to Lauterbrunnen and to the guest house for a good nights sleep.

Olivia on the train heading down

We woke up a bit later than the previous day because unlike the other side of the valley where you need to take a train to get to the skiing, the Schilthorn bahn is right at the base of the valley and with four quick trams your at the top of the Schilthorn with amazing views and great runs. We made a few runs before heading into town to grab some sandwich making materials before riding the lift back up to the top. On the way up the tram hans and I spotted a cool line right down the front face that was under the tram that we wanted to give a go but by the time we start skinning over to it the snow was getting too baked by the sun do do it safely so we decided to call it and take a different line back to the lifts and ski on piste for the rest of the day if the snow was in the sun.

Nice little entrance

The warming of the snow was apparent everywhere with small slides and even some large ones right under the chair. Searching for snow in the shade I remembered a line off the top of the Schilthorn that I had skied with better conditions a year ago and thought we should give a go. The face is completely in the shade and only requires a small walk around the viewing terrace before you drop into a nice steep shaded face. The snow wasn't good but we really weren't expecting anything too good when the temps are WAY above freezing. After doing one lap in the face we decided that even though the snow isn't perfect the bottom steep section is fun on its own. One more lap on the face and we headed down to meet my dad for lunch because Olivia has already headed down because of a stomach ache. We ate lunch right at the base of the bahn in Murren in what seemed to be spring conditions in January. the rest of the day was spent skiing sloppy spring like turns and admiring the views. It was so clear today we could see all the way to the Mont Blanc Massif which was pretty cool. The drive back to Garmisch was smooth and without incident all the way to the driveway! Good times
-Owen

Pretty nice!

New Years in Garmisch

At 12 midnight we are dodging fireworks and bombs in the Marienplatz with smoke so thick it looked like a Vietnam war scene but lets not start this story here....

A view from the Wank

The night started at around 1200 when I woke up and started to gather my ski gear for what would undoubtedly be a new years to remember. My head still hazy from waking up I started stuffing my jacket, pants, under layers, goggles, a few beers....and god don't forget the headlamp.  After Hans and I had thrown everything into the back of the suby for the short ride to the resort I remembered that I still needed to grab some cash for the night to come so off I ran off to the ATM. Soon I was back and we headed off the Hausberg to attempt to clip a ticket or two for Hans and my sister who had yet to buy a pass but because of our late departure but didn't want to drop the money to buy one. After  only 20 minutes we waled away with two passes in hand and before quickly getting picked up and shuttled to the base of the Alpspitze bahn.

The Alpspitze bahn is the longest cable car in the Classic Garmisch area and has the most vertical rise which makes it the ideal start for a long, dark, inebriated ski run between 6 huts where, at each hut you drink more and more before ending up in the town at the base. We boarded the tram and made it to the top at around 3:30 before dropping the packs and getting a few runs on the upper t-bars before meeting up with some friends who were sitting a short hike from the tram and opening up the first beer or two of the night. Before long we had been joined by a few more new friends from Australia who were instructing in Garmisch. Not long after this the sun went down and we started to make our first move down the mountain which was booting skiing down to were I had left my skis with a backpack full of beer. A short ski and we had made it down to the Hachalm hutte to...drink more beer. About half and hour after we arrived fire works were being thrown under tables and a random girl directly next to us got pretty angry so we made our way to the next hut as she continued to get angrier and angrier.
The next hut is just below the kreuzeck and we could hear it before we even arrived due to a large sound system on the porch. As soon as we arrived the idea that taking off our shirts was contrived and  soon thereafter four guys started dancing shirtless with whomever walked by on their way to the restaurant. I attempted to get gopro of this but upon arriving home I found out that the light was too low so it didn't turn out too good but the sound is almost worth posting the whole video anyways. After shirtless dancing and general harassing of other patrons of the bar we headed on down to D9 where we were in for a surprise...D9 had a private party. We found this out after we had already flash mobbed the door but swiftly got kicked out but Hans still scored a K2 coffee cup so we called it a win and skied on down the rest of the icy Kochelberg run.
For whatever reason this is where my skiing went to shit. I front of me one guy got clipped by a bamboo pole and I tried to stop but completely whipped out and had the second telemark release that I have ever experienced. A little further down the run in full on GNAR style I yelled "We rip shit" to a group of ski tourers going up the run and seconds later did a complete lincoln loop on the most solid ice I have ever seen outside of the skating rink. I was caught mid icy slope side stepping for head lamp, hat,   and a ski pole before making my descent to the valley with my tail between my legs.
After changing into street clothes we walked into town and head to Saigon City, a Vietnamese restaurant for some cheap food. We must have looked completely out of it because a random German guy two tables down eating with his wife asked us if we were okay before continuing his meal. We scarfed down three plates of noodles before heading back out on the Haupstrasse. The total for three plates of food was only 21 Euros so we didn't feel too bad about eating out.
A few hours of walking aimlessly finally got us closer to final hour of the year where we found ourselves watching people throw all sorts of fireworks in all directions. The highlight of the night was watching some guy try to put out a fire that was burning down one of the trees downtown with his training jacket that soon also was in flames. Good times and a pretty good last new years on this side of the pond!

-Owen

Rauth Hutte

Hans has been here just one night when we got him out on his first ski tour up to the Rauth hutte on the flank of the Hohe Munde. The snow was great and we got some pretty deep powder turns with the dogs! Here are some pictures of the day!

-Owen

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

Short tour of the Langenfelder

I made a short ski tour of an unopened ski run and had a great time making my way back down the small slope before being back the resort. Here's a small clip of that run. The steeper stuff starts at around 3 minutes. Enjoy!
-Owen

Dawn Patrol Hausberg, Dec 10

A little biit of snow

This morning was the best Dawn Patrol I have ever gotten to experience. My alarm went off at around 4:25 and with one look out of the window I was rushing around trying to get my clothes on and heading toward the door with skis and skins already attached in hand. One quick text later to make sure Jeremy was awake and functioning because pulling into the parking lot to find out your partner is still tucked away in bed is a tragedy I try to avoid I ate some breakfast and stepped out into the cold air.
Walking around the garage I was a little disheartened to find my car barrakaded into my parking spot due to a snowplow that had pushed 2ft of packed snow all the way around my car. I swept the 8 or 9 inches of light snow off my car and put in the Suby in gear. Not wanting to waste anytime digging out my car I decided to try just backing up right over the berm a chance and it worked out perfectly. My Subaru surprises me everyday I drive it in the snow.

Skinning past a little cabin

Driving through the town it looked like the snowplows were out in full force but for some reason had yet to plow the entrance road to the hausberg so  the snow got thrown up and over my front bumper like I was snowmobiling all the way into the parking lot. Arriving in the parking lot there was one plow going back and forth as I waited five minutes for Jeremy to arrive and for the tour to get going.
The start of the tour was well groomed until we got to the first major rise and after that it was like braking trail on a powder day but luckily the snow was quite light allowing us to move reasonably fast. We made our way up toward the horn, a run that in the daytime goes right off the top gondola station at the hausberg. We made it just up to the point where the last serious rise started to happened and decided to turn around because Jeremy had work and still needed to take a shower and get some other stuff ready for his day.

Nice turns in anyones book



Just about to the knee

The first turns were just over my boot top and very light. I missed the effortlessness of the turns and really enjoyed each one as we made out way down the nice easy gradient. I haven't skied this good of snow in a long time and was just happy to make any turns at all considering the resort had only been open for 3 days and all of the days have been powder days. After making ten turns we decided to break out the camera just to make the friends jealous and to capture a great time.


Milking all the skiing we could out of the steeper base section we made nice short radius turns all the way to the groomers where we straight lined out and back to the cars that had both gained another two inches on their hoods. Overall this was the best Dawn Patrol I have ever done and so far this year definitely makes the top spot for fun days even though we really only got one run in the turns made it well worth it. Looking out the window right now to see it snowing more and more make me think we might have to do another Dawn Patrol tomorrow morning as well...stay posted!

Ski touring Ehrwald Alm

I got out today with the parents on a nice little tour of some sidecountry that hasn't been opened yet to the public and had a good time skiing some tracked out powder. Hopefully another video coming soon as it is dumping hard outside right now! I got a few shots with the gopro so here is one of the runs!
-Owen