Silvretta hut trip with Scott

My uncle and lucked out and got a few days free to head over to the Silvretta to get a few days of hut skiing in before my aunt and him fly back to Seattle on Monday. Here is a simplified trip report from a few great days of skiing!

Wait, where are we??

 When we got to the lifts of Ischgl we got lucky and scored some tickets off some German that said they had partied too hard on their last day and wouldn't be using them. The half day ticket we would have bought was for 34 Euros and we bought ours of the college students for 20 Euros! After the lift ride we had gone from thick trees to well above the treeline but that didn't stop us from feeling like we were at a large train station getting off the upper lift...quite a few people and too many restaurants in every direction.

From the top of the Paulinkopf

 From the top of the Paulinkopf we could see are route that goes straight up and over the shoulder at the end of the valley straight ahead in this photo.

Shot of us at the top of the Paulinkopf and the start of the tour

Starting the tour

 The start of the tour was only a small rise but we did cross from Austria into Switzerland at the top of the ridge which was pretty cool.

A shot with the border sign

The Heidelberger Hutte

 This is our first view of the Heidelberger  Hutte as we came around the corner from the Paulinkopf...pretty nice hut!

Scott at the front door

Leaving the Heidelberg hutte

The next morning we skinned up the main valley eventually taking a side valley heading toward the Kronnenjoch on our way to the Jamtal hutte.

The Breite Kronne

 The Breite Kronne looms on the on the left as you make your way to the joch and seems to be the most popular summit. You can't ski from the top but the view after a short walk is pretty nice!

Us on the Breite Kronne

Lunch break

 After walking down from the Breite Kronne we found some nice rocks to sit on and enjoy the lunch we had prepared at the Heidelberger hutte in the morning. It was warm enough for us to take off the boots and lounge in the sun airing out the socks.

Kronne

 After eating lunch we made our way along the ridge at first thinking we were going to head straight down to the Jamtal hutte but some tracks heading up the Kronne gave us hope of another climb before our descent. After looking at it for a while we both decided it looked like a clear path so we started to skin to the base of the peak.

The couloir

 From the ridge we took our skis off and started booting up the couloir before gain another small shoulder and heading up another small chute directly up the front face. At the top of this chute and after a rock traverse we got stuck and with too much loose rock to be down safely we made out way back down.

Little rock climbing!

Nice hanging glacier across from the Kronne

The Jamtal hutte

 The Jamtal came soon enough as we made our way down the valley. I was aware that this hut was large but  I had no idea it was going to be this big! It looks more like a nice hotel dropped in the mountains! As we made our way to the ski room to drop our stuff it was clear that there were quite a few people at this hut!After switching into our hut shoes we made our way to check into our room which I quickly found out we didn't have. The hut host had misunderstood my email saying that I would need to cancel one night and keep the other and had actually cancelled both of our night.

Have you seen more touring setups!

My uncle and I were both pretty scared this would be our last night of the tour. A few minutes of both of us sitting wondering what was going to happen later and one of the hut keepers pulled us aside and walked us into the "conference room". Once in the conference room he gave us two mattresses and told us when dinner would be. We were perfectly fine with being in the spacious conference room with only four other people!

Next morning skinning 

 The next morning we woke up to the normal breakfast and quickly made our way to the gear room to get our boots and skis on. We quickly made our way up the valley to the days goal, the Dreilander Spitz. Once we got a ways from the hut the valleys opened up all around us showing us so much ski terrain in all directions that we both couldn't stop taking pictures.

The Jamspitze is the left one

 The valley that we would head up presented itself as obvious today but thinking about being here in a whiteout would give me shivers. In this picture the valley heading to the right is the one we took.

Ochsenscharte

 At the top of the Ochsenscharte we stopped for a snack and too snap some pictures. The top of this pass isn't a countries border but you are going between the states of Tirol and into the Vor-Arlberg. This is also the ridge you would cross over if you were to head down to the Weisbadner hutte. At the top of the Ochsenscharte we could see that there was a line to get to the top of the Dreilander Spitze so we opted to get some good skiing in instead!

Low angle glacier skiing!

 I think some of the best turns of the trip were heading down the glacier below the Ochsenscharte and around the crevasses back to the valley. Once at the valley floor again we put the skins back on and made our way back up but this time headed toward the two Jamstpitzes.

Too many skiers!

 As we started up the first major rise up to the Vor Jamspitze we started to see heads appear heading in our direction. It started as 4 and then 7 and then 10 skiers heading down the slope above us! In the end I counted 17 people all skiing the same slope...incredible!

The Vor Jamspitze

 After we had made it to the joch between the Vor and Hinter Jamspitze I quickly spotted a line I had to ski on the Vor Jamspitze. Onc emy uncle had joined me between the peaks we decided that he would head to the Hinter Jam and I would ski the line I wanted to on the Vor. In this photo the line is in the large chute with the most snow. It was quite a ski and I even got a very loud, "supa" from a group touring below me, good times!

Skinning up towards the Gem Spitz

 After a great ski off the Jam Joch we made our way to the flank of the Gem Spitz and made nice turns down to the base of protruding ridge of the Gem Spitze and started skinning from there up the wide open glacier. Its funny that on the whole tour we never had to break trail at any point...

Looking down

 The down side of not making a skin track is that once we got to the top of the joch between the us and the Gem Spitz we could see that like many other peaks this one had a large line to the top so we forgo this summit and went to a joch instead giving us a view down another valley which was well worth it.

Gem Spitz is the highest left peak

After a quick snack and drink we skied great turns all the way to the hutte were we then had a bier and enjoyed the sun deck before heading inside for a nap.

The difference between Sat and Sun..

 When we got back to the gear room it was clear that touring weekdays is the best way to do a trip like this. Check out the first picture of the gear room when we arrived on Saturday and then scroll back to this one...ya!

My pack

 This is the size of the pack I had for the whole trip! I love hut skiing!

The road

 After eating breakfast we packed up the gear, paid the bill, and got on the cat track down the valley to Galtur where I had parked my car. The track requires some pushing but we still made it out in 45 minutes.

Last shot!

This was a super fun trip that I would be happy to go on again and again. It would be impossible to ski all the lines in a season let alone a weekend. This was the best ski trip of my year and couldn't be more happy to share it with my uncle. I think this made up for his last trip in 2006 when we had to head to Hintertux to find enough snow to ski in January!

Wank ski tour

Got out of the house yesterday to do a tour up to the top of the Wank with my friend, Micheal who's going to school in Innsbruck. After waiting in the parking lot because he was stuck in the traffic from Munich we starting making our way up  the skin track. The skin track begins winding it's way up to the top through thick trees on the normal hiking trail used in summer. Some parts of the skin track were a bit steep but not bad at all after I put the ski crampons on for a little extra grip on the ice. Micheal begin having problems with his right heel lift about half way up the tour but he toughed it out even though he had to put his heel lift back up every 20 steps.
After a quick meal on the top we made out way out far left of the top and begin skiing pretty deep snow down to the track that brings you all the way around the bottom of the mountain and back to the car. The snow was surprisingly good but the run was a little short for me to want to do a repeat of this tour.
-Owen

Schöngänge and ski

Just had an eventful climb and ski up to the Bernedein Kopf next to the Alpspitze yesterday in possibly the worst conditions ever but hey, I got through it!

Schöngänge in summer

I started up the Alpspitze bahn on either the first or the second bahn, I couldn't tell which one as I was  concentrating on riding my bike up the icy road with my skis strapped to my pack. When I got on the tram there was a guide from the guiding service in town who was also heading up the Schongange so I guessed it would be in shape if there was a guide also headed on the same route. When I reached the place to put skins on a large sluff came of the ledges to our right and gave me slight pause. The route was in good condition and none of the funnels were above the route so I carried on and was soon making switchbacks up the increasingly icy slope. The sun from a few days earlier had made the base on this slope very hard and with 4 inches of sugar on top of that skinning was not easy and planting edges in was necessary to carry on upwards.

Looking back down from the top

After 20 minutes I had reached the start of the kletterstieg, strapped my skis on my pack, and was off around 50 meters behind the guide I had met on the tram. The crux of the whole route is 20 meters after putting skis on the pack and involves a little bit of ice right next to the kletterstieg. I didn't need to put crampons on due to easy rock to stem on but if it were filled in crampons would be nice. After moving through this tight section it is easy moving as you hug the rock to your right and enjoy the abundance of air on your left. Around 40 meters after making it through the ice I looked back to see a larger size sluff go right through that section making me think more about hauling as in the wide open parts and hugging the rock close when I could. The rest of the route was uneventful and soon enough I stumbled to the top not even thinking about following the guide who had almost disappeared into the whiteout heading to the Alpspitze. I decided to head the opposite direction down to the normal skin track and then skin to the Stuiben Hutte to sit and drink a beer before heading back out to the resort.
It was a day...whether it was good or bad I don't know.
-Owen

Powder Day, Jan 17th

I got out shooting photos of August on one of the biggest powder days of the year. I got a few shots that I'm happy with but still have a lot to learn about shooting in the snow and aperture settings but its a good start!
-Owen

Alpspitze powder ski!

The top

Hans and I made the first tram up the Alspitze bahn and were soon skinning around the back of the Bernedein T-bar to start the long rise up to the saddle of the Alpspitze. The skinning was hard in the rolling terrain with very flat light but soon enough we had made it to the saddle and dug a quick snow pit to test for stability which turned out to hold very good results. The top layer of fluff from last night came off easy while the bottom layers were so well bonded that I couldn't get a sheer break after multiple hard hits. With this information we kept going gaining the ridge and starting the ridge walk. A few parts of the ridge were difficult to get good feet on the rocks but for the most part we cruised up it without much difficulty even with the new snow. About halfway up the ridge the fog moved in hard but without much wind so it wasn't too uncomfortable to keep moving along the ridge. After the ridge we put the skins back on and cruised through the fog to the summit not seeing the cross until we were around 50 meters out. As soon as we arrived a small break in the clouds allowed us to get a good view of the ski down and lasted until we were around halfway down the upper face skiing thigh deep snow the whole way. 

Deep

Near the bottom the run bottlenecks and gains some steepness so we took turns skiing it as sluff from the previous day of snow couldn't hold on to the steep slope. Everything worked out and we had the best day of the year so far! I usually ski the Alpspitze in April but skiing it with some powder made it that much better!

-Owen

The Alpspitze on a spring day last April. The route goes
up the left ridge to the summit. We had better snow
today!

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